Kumasi, April 1, GNA - Participants at a public forum on Tobacco control in Ghana have called on the government to speed up the passage of the Tobacco Control Bill into law.

They said there should no longer be any feet dragging on the bill, which was drafted in 2005, and asked that everything should be done to ensure that it was passed.

This would help ban direct and indirect tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship, prohibit minors from buying and selling tobacco products as well as tobacco promotional items and events. Besides, it would outlaw smoking in all public places and thereby protect people from its associated health dangers.

The forum was organized by Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that focuses on health issues.

In attendance were directors and managers of health institutions, chiefs, teachers and students from various senior and junior high schools in the Ashanti region.

It provided the platform for the public input into the tobacco control bill, sensitize the people on the dangers on the use and exposure to tobacco smoke so as to prevent tobacco related diseases. The participants also underlined the need to intensify public education on the effects of drug abuse, which had been on the ascendancy lately and claiming the lives of many.

Mr Labram Musah Massawudu, Programmes Director of VALD, urged policy and decision makers to do more to protect the lives of the people.

He said Niger, Kenya Mauritius, Togo, Nigeria and South Africa all have tobacco control laws and that Ghana could not afford to be left behind.

Mr Joseph Sarfo-Antwi of the Kumasi Metropolitan Health Education Unit advised the youth to have the will-power to say no to peers who would want to draw them into smoking.