Bhutan's smoking monk may get 5 yr jail

Thimpu, Feb 10: Bhutan's strict anti-smoking law may soon have its first casualty in a Buddhist monk who could face up to five years in prison. According to reports, he was caught in possession of 72 packets of chewing tobacco.

Bhutan, where smoking is considered bad for one's karma, has under a new law granted police the powers to raid homes, and threaten jail for shopkeepers who sell tobacco and smokers who fail to provide customs receipts for imported cigarettes.

The monk who has not been publicly identified was having no receipt from the customs department, and according to local media has said that he was unaware of the new law. The 24-year old is a student at a 400-year-old monastic school.

He is said to have bought the tobacco from Jaigaon, an Indian town near the border with Bhutan.

Though smoking in private is not illegal in Bhutan, but people are limited to 200 cigarettes or 150 gms of tobacco products a month that can be legally imported under the condition that they provide customs receipt when confronted by the police.

OneIndia News