The Botswana Police Director of Forensic Science Services, Dr Helen Tumediso-Magora has said that her organization is ready and willing to play its part in ensuring effective implementation of the Control of Smoking Act.

Dr Magora said this at a workshop aimed at improving the enforcement and Control of Smoking Act in Gaborone recently. She said that the Act which has been in existence since 1993 need to be revisited to fine tune it to current challenges.  Dr Magora said lack of awareness of tobacco control laws among law enforcers also posed a challenge hence a need to train them.

 She said law enforcement officers require training in order to appreciate the depth of the issues to be enforced. Another obstacle, she said is that of misleading advertising by the tobacco industry which disregards the dangers of smoking and depicts anti-smoke-free laws as irrelevant.

Dr Magora said the workshop will go a long way in helping law enforcement officers to appreciate their roles in enforcing the tobacco law as well as assisting their co-workers who are smokers to also manage the habit. 

She encouraged workshop participants to among others discuss widespread public campaigns on the content of the Control of Smoking Act, focusing on penalties for violations, restrictions of smoking areas, reporting channels and protection of whistle blowers.  Dr Magora said that they should also look at coming up with attention grabbing signs that will inform the public and the business community about the law which will empower nonsmokers to speak up to demand compliance.

The workshop was sponsored by the Anti Tobacco Network and attended among others by law enforcement officers from the Botswana Police Service and Botswana Unified Revenue Services.