Kids found buying cigarettes won’t be sent to jail, says KJ

 

Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin launching the KKMNow portal, which is a continuation of the CovidNow portal. (Bernama pic)

PUTRAJAYA: Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has described the claim that the GEG bill is “criminalising children” as misleading.

He said compound fines for minors who smoke are provided in the existing regulations, adding that it cannot be registered as a criminal offence.

Khairy said there is no prison sentence for minors who smoke under the existing regulations or for those who were born after 2007 in the new bill, officially known as the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill 2022.

“So, please don’t mislead the people by alleging that children will be criminalised (under the bill). That is not true.

“At present, children found to be buying cigarettes will only be fined RM50,” he told reporters after launching the KKMNow portal.

He was commenting on the submission of a memorandum by the Consumer Choice Centre (CCC) in Parliament today protesting the bill.

The memorandum claimed the bill had excessive enforcement powers, criminalising children and affecting the poor.

The bill, which will prohibit the sale and use of any form of smoking material, including electronic cigarettes or vaping, to individuals born on Jan 1, 2007, onwards, is intended to reduce smoking among Malaysians.

It was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat by Khairy on July 27 for the first reading, but was referred to a parliamentary special select committee to be refined.

Khairy said the bill had been discussed by the committee members, consisting of various politicians, and amendments were made to streamline the enforcement powers to ensure that it was not excessive.

Earlier, Khairy said KKMNow was a continuation or expansion of the CovidNow portal, in line with the digitalisation of the health services and also the health ministry’s efforts to establish an integrated platform to share health data.

He said KKMNow features the display of data related to health programmes such as blood and organ donations, health screenings and infectious disease data.

The portal was developed in collaboration with the statistics department and can be accessed at https://data.moh.gov.my/. - FMT