REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Health Ministry reiterated that the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is not aimed at banning production or smoking but to control and prevent children from smoking. "Teenagers and young children have become targets for cigarette industry to become their permanent consumers," the ministry's Director General of Disease Control and Prevention M Subuh said, during a discussion on draft law on tobacco here, on Thursday.

Subuh stated that tobacco contains addictive substance and has been used as a medium to introduce narcotics and psychotropics. Thus, children must be prevented from being addicted to tobacco. According to the ministry, the number of young smokers in Indonesia has increased significantly. "Many of us have discussed demography bonus. But we will have demography disasters if we do not take any efforts to prevent diseases caused by smoking," he continued.

However, Subuh admitted that despite its obvious danger for health, Indonesia's law on tobacco is still too flexible and moderate compared to other countries, which have implemented firmer regulations on cigarette smoking to protect their citizens.

In 2015, teenage smokers made up of 7.2 percent of Indonesia's 255 million population. President Jokowi's administration aims to reduce the number to 4.5 percent within four years. 

Smoking among teens aged 10 to 14 jumped from 0.7 percent in 2001 to 4.8 percent, according to the health ministry's primary health research carried out in 2013.

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