Since 2005 Bhutan, a country fenced by the Himalaya Mountains, is struggling to stop its citizens smoking. Unlike the smoking bans in Europe where in several countries smoking was prohibited in public buildings, offices etc. Bhutan took the ban one step further making selling and smoking in public illegal. For a number of reasons the prohibition did not bring expected results. Accordingly, since 2011 a new enforcement policy came into life allowing police officers to enter private properties and search for illegal possessions. The situation has drawn not only national but also international attention raising the question if this time government is going to be successful and will it be enough to limit the smuggling from India and China.

International position on the damaging effects of smoking is gaining more and more supporters and scientific approval. According to the World Health Organization, “tobacco use can kill in so many ways that it is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of death in the world” (WHO Report on The Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008). Another statistics show that smoking cause death of 5millions people each year (more than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined) and the projections claim that it can be the cause of death of as much as one billion people in the 21st century (WHO Report on The Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008). The smoking epidemic is claimed (WHO 2008) to be a “the single most preventable cause of death in the world today”. In its guideline the organization proposes a number of tools that can be adopted by the national governments in order to curb smoking. Among some it proposes increase in taxes for trade in tobacco or increase in spendings for tobacco dependence services. The measures taken by Bhutan however go far beyond that leads.

“The worlds first smoke-free nation” – as described by Bhutanese politicians, enacted in 2009 a law, coming into life this year, that empowers the Bhutan police to raid homes with sniffer dogs and search for contraband tobacco. Although the ban is not total (you are still allowed to smoke at home) the possession of cigarettes for personal use has to be certified by the specific documents from the custom service. It is illegal to sell cigarettes, leaving smokers with no other option than import them from abroad. Import is charged with 200% sales taxes and custom duties, making smoking an incredibly expensive habit. Each smoker is allowed to possess up to 200 cigarettes.

Decision to enact the bill has been taken by the votes of 61 to 4 MPs. This ratio clearly presents that there is a small opposition to the idea on the political level. With a rare opinions like the one from the opposition leader, Tshering Tobgay, hoping “that the first person to be caught and jailed due to the new law will be a member of parliament”, the ban is did not meet large criticism. Few critical voices appeared in the Bhutanese web portals asking Bhutan to “wake up” and “educate rather than impose”. The question which raises some doubts is the punishment that is going to be used. Possession of cigarettes can be punished with prison sentences of between 3 to 5 years. One of the editors of the biggest Bhutanese newspaper, Kuensel, described them as “draconian”.

Another problem observed by commentators is the chance for the black market to develop as it has been the case since 2005. With the biggest world cigarettes market just around the corner (China) and the poor level of border control, country can be facing here a substantial loss in profits combined with development of organized crime. According to the Euromonitor International, the 10% of cigarettes, in the world market valued for more then $600 billions in 2009, originate from the illicit trade.

Despite all controversies the ban may turn out to be successful. Bhutan is regarded as an exceptional country, with its isolation from the rest of the world, borders almost closed to foreign tourists and society dedicated to its tradition and Buddhism, the results are hard to predict. What is crucial for this case, Bhutan’s population of smokers is relatively small (depending on the source from 6% to 12%) in comparison to U.S. (23%) or UK (22%). Furthermore, Bhutanese citizens are far more dependant on different drugs then tobacco, being mainly the alcohol and betel nut – a stimulant that changes your saliva red and has been linked with oral cancer. All in all smoking is not something that Bhutanese would be missing a lot.