• March 18, 2024

Shopkeepers given a lesson

 Shopkeepers given a lesson

Shops in Malaysia that were recently found to have broken regulations covering the sales of tobacco products have been rounded on by the Health Ministry’s deputy director general (public health) Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, according to a story in The Sun Daily.

“Adults are supposed to protect children, not corrupt them,” Lokman told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday. “These people have failed their social responsibilities in protecting the young.”

The Health Ministry, on August 11, conducted a joint operation with state health departments against shops that were suspected of selling cigarettes to children.

A total of 21 premises in Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, and Selangor were inspected and 13 of them were found to have committed offences under the Tobacco Product Control Regulation.

These offences include selling cigarettes to under-age people, selling individual cigarettes, and failure to display age restriction warnings.

Lokman said the sellers were likely motivated by nothing more than profit.

The Ministry is currently consulting with deputy public prosecutors from the respective states to take legal action against the premises.

And it is to contact the schools of six school children who were caught buying cigarettes to arrange for counselling services for them.

Lokman warned parents not to send children to buy cigarettes on their behalf as this was illegal.