Omar Badjie, Programme Director Non-Communicable Disease of the Health Ministry
By Fatou Sillah
Omar Badjie, Programme Director for Non-Communicable Diseases at the Ministry of Health, has announced that all types of electronic cigarettes are entirely banned in The Gambia.
“Electronic cigarettes in the country are completely banned, which is different from shisha; the importation of Shisha is not banned, but it should be in line with the Tobacco control regulations. But any form of electronic cigarettes, be it electronic nicotine delivery system or electronic non-delivery system, should be completely banned.”
He expressed concern about the increasing presence of these products in the country, highlighting that they often target young people. “Now we are seeing a lot of this coming into the country, and most of these products are targeting the youth, and they are designed in such a way that it has different flavours which are so attractive, and they are in different forms, some are in form of a pen, some are in form of a flash drive, some are in form of something that will just attract especially the youth folk and women in general because these are the people that are targeted for these products and these are the people that are targeted for advertisements of these products, so they make sure it is designed in such a way that it will attract the young ones,” Badjie explained.
Mr. Badjie also noted that social media poses a significant challenge to their efforts in enforcing the Tobacco Control Act.
“Whenever we start this exercise before we know it, now this social media is also disseminating information very quickly, so because of this, whenever we are out to do this exercise, you see them calling one another. Before we arrive, everything will be sorted out. But we have a large junk of these unwanted materials that are not in conformity with the rules and regulations of the tobacco control act,” he said.
Omar Badjie further mentioned that they are working on taking legal action against those who violate the Tobacco Control Act.
“Yes, there are a series of violations going on, this is not the first time, and we have been conducting this quarterly, and we seize a lot of tobacco products that doesn’t comply with the rules and regulations of this country in accordance with what we have, and what we do is confiscate those materials, and there are processes we also have to pick. Is it just like we just condemned this and went and destroyed or took those people to court? Of course legal action should be taken, but these need some processes, and these are the processes we are following, and all these materials will follow all due process to ensure that those culprits are taken to court.”