JAKARTA: Tobacco farmers from Temanggung, Central Java, filed a judicial review with the Constitutional Court on Thursday concerning provisions in the health law, which explicitly states that tobacco is an addictive substance that is dangerous to health.
They said that the provisions could threaten the livelihood of 47,000 tobacco farmers across the country and potentially criminalize them.
Spokesman for the petitioners, Bambang Sukarno, said that the law did not clearly define the term "addictive".
"While addictive substances are also contained in many foods, why is it that only the tobacco business will be regulated?" he said as quoted by detik.com.
Currently the government is drafting a bylaw that will regulate the tobacco business.
"We are asking the government to back its claim that tobacco is fatal...by providing information on who has died of tobacco-related illnesses, which brand of cigarettes they consumed, the victims' names and where they lived," Bambang said. - JP
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