Advocates in Jamaica Demand Comprehensive Tobacco Legislation

In Jamaica, tobacco companies face few barriers to getting their names and addictive products in front of the people they want to hook.

Tobacco is advertised online, in newspapers and magazines and in stores. In addition to cigarettes, anyone in a retail setting, such as a pharmacy, might see “disposable vapes, right there on the counter where you have to pay,” says Deborah Chen, Executive Director of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica. “They’re sold to anybody.”

Tobacco companies in Jamaica can also market their corporate images. Carreras, a British American Tobacco subsidiary that controls 90% of Jamaica’s tobacco market, offers scholarships to students and ensures the public knows about it. “In the past, they have had Ministers of Education at the handing-over ceremony for these hundred students and this goodwill type of thing,” says Barbara McGaw, Tobacco Control Advisor for the Jamaica Coalition of Tobacco Control. In addition to the hypocrisy of tobacco companies painting themselves as good corporate citizens while also “causing death and harm to thousands of people,” says Chen, these scholarships are given to young people, effectively creating an opportunity for tobacco companies to target youth.

Why is an industry that causes addiction, disease and death allowed to do this? “…Because we don’t have a law in Article 13 as yet,” McGaw says, referring to the Article of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that covers tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) bans. “Those activities will be there as long as we don’t have comprehensive tobacco legislation,” she says.

But these women are working to change that.

Proposed protections are ‘languishing’

A comprehensive set of tobacco control regulations that would fully ban TAPS, including displays of so-called corporate social responsibility, has been proposed, but is “languishing,” Chen says.

The legislation, called the Tobacco Control Act, 2020, was first tabled more than four years ago. Since then, a Joint Select Committee invited stakeholders, including the tobacco industry, to make submissions. The bill is still under review. Carreras, whose profits would be affected if smoking rates declined, made a submission.

The Tobacco Control Act, 2020, would fill the gaps left by the current Public Health (Tobacco Control) Regulations, 2013, which only covers a few of the articles in the FCTC, to which Jamaica has been a Party since 2005. The current legislation addresses exposure to tobacco smoke (Article 8), tobacco product disclosures (Article 10) and tobacco product packaging (Article 11). The new Act would make the country’s tobacco control regulations nearly fully compliant with the FCTC.

The new regulations would also extend to e-cigarettes. The rise in e-cigarette use, especially among young people, has been particularly troubling to Chen and McGaw. McGaw says, “The Global Youth Tobacco Survey, which looks at the youth smoking, is showing around 11 to 12%. And what is most concerning to us is that the electronic cigarettes and vaping rates are actually higher than the actual tobacco rates.” According to the 2017 survey, 11.7% of students surveyed reported using e-cigarettes, while 11.2% reported smoking cigarettes.

This is likely the result, in part, of industry marketing, which the new legislation would address. Tobacco companies often say that they only market e-cigarettes to adults who want to quit cigarettes. But, Chen questions, “Why would it need to be cherry or strawberry flavored if it’s adults that they’re targeting and they’re trying to help…?” She adds, “The children are being addicted. … They’re colorful. They have different flavors. And while our law is taking an inordinate amount of time to go through the process, that is helpful [to the industry].”

Advocacy groups have urged the Act’s passage, while the tobacco industry has made at least one attempt to delay it. And every day the legislation is delayed is another day the industry can hook more people. Data shows that smoking prevalence has increased between 2016 and 2023.

Tobacco companies particularly target those with lower socioeconomic status—a tactic the industry practices in Jamaica and around the world. “It is those in the lower socioeconomic group that have the highest levels of smoking, and those are the ones who can least afford it. So that is also a big concern. And the tobacco industry do tend to target the most vulnerable people, more than they do those in the upper socioeconomic class,” Chen says.

Worthwhile work

Between improved health and well-being, lower health costs and increased productivity, Chen and McGaw know the return on investment will have made all of the advocacy work worthwhile. Chen wants to remind policymakers: “…Investing in tobacco control measures… it’s really worth it. There is way more to be gained by curbing tobacco use than there is by not doing so… .”

Jamaica isn’t seeing those benefits yet. The new law has not yet been passed, and until it is, there is always the risk of the tobacco industry interfering to further delay it.

That is why Chen urges advocates to be observant, at both the local and the global level. “You can be assured that [what’s happening globally] is going to come down the stream eventually to what’s happening in Jamaica. It’s not going to just happen in other countries,” she says.

This kind of foresight is essential to protecting current and future generations from the harms of tobacco, and for advocating to policymakers what must be done. McGaw says, “The governments have a responsibility to ensure that people are protected.”

Hear more about Chen and McGaw’s journey in tobacco control and their championing of tobacco control legislation in Jamaica in STOP’s series, “Lives at Stake: True Stories of People Challenging Big Tobacco.”