By Albert Allotey, GNA
Accra, Sept. 01, GNA – The Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development, Ghana (VAST Ghana), a civil society organisation has commended three institutions for their swift action to seize quantity of unregistered product “Cigarette Rod Lollipop” at the Accra Central Business District and Makola Market.
The organisations are Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Police Service and the National Security. They have also arrested a suspect.
VAST Ghana in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mr Labram Musah and copied to the Ghana News Agency called for nationwide enforcement, and laboratory testing of the product to protect the children.
The cigarette-shaped candy has triggered public outrage and public health concern, and the FDA has confirmed that the product is unregistered, while its composition is unknown and has advised the public not to purchase or consume it.
It said, “While we commend this rapid response, the FDA must go beyond the initial action of confiscation and arrest. Surveillance and enforcement must not stop at Makola or the Accra Central Business District, instead extend operations nationwide.”
“They must also strengthen border controls to prevent further importation of similar products, and conduct laboratory analysis of seized samples to fully establish their chemical composition and report same to the public,” the statement stressed.
It said parents and the public deserved clear, evidence-based information about what children were being offered.
The “Cigarette Rod Lollipop” is an industry-style gimmick and a clear example of the commercial determinants of health, the ways in which commercial actors design products, packaging and marketing to shape behaviours that harm health, especially among children and young people, statement indicated.
It said this came as no surprise; because Ghana’s smoking rate is under five per cent, so the industry was trying to recruit a new generation of users. Consequently, they are deploying new strategies specifically designed to hook our young ones.
The statement said the World Health Organisation (WHO) World No Tobacco Day themes for both 2025 “Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products” and 2026 “Unmasking the Appeal – Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction” were chosen precisely to expose these tactics.
It stated that cigarette-shaped confectionery sold to or accessible by children is a direct public-health threat and a potential breach of Ghana’s Tobacco Control Law.
Under the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851), Section 61(2) prohibits any person from selling, displaying for sale, supplying or advertising a non-tobacco product that contains writing, pictures, images, graphics, messages or other matter commonly identified or associated with a tobacco product, brand or manufacturer, the statement said.
It further stated that Section 62 (1) explicitly prohibits packaging, labelling or offering for sale any product that looks like or is likely to be identified or associated with tobacco or a tobacco product.
Section 65 prohibits the sale of tobacco or tobacco products to a child and the use of children in the sale or purchase of tobacco products.
The statement said products deliberately designed to appeal to minors, and mimic cigarettes undermine the protective intent of these provisions.
It pointed out that these legal safeguards align with Article 16 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires Parties to prohibit the manufacture and sale of sweets, snacks, toys or other objects in the form of tobacco products that appeal to minors.
GNA
Editor: Christabel AddoÂ