Bhutan Narcotics Control Authority (BNCA) says people should not be alarmed with the WHO’s report which highlights that Bhutan has the highest number of adolescent tobacco users in the South-East Asia.
BNCA clarified that the report is based on incidents of one time use and not that of regular use. The World Health Organisation(WHO) has surveyed over 5,800 students aged between 12-17 and found out that some 1700 students are smokers. However, BNCA’s national survey carried out last year came up with different stats.
“According to our survey, we discovered that only 6.6 per cent of students from class 7-12 have abused tobacco quite frequently. Over 7,500 students were surveyed,” said the Chief Programme Officer of BNCA, Nima Damdul.
The WHO report also states that the actual prevalence maybe higher, as the current estimate is based only on the school-going adolescents and haven’t considered the non-school-going adolescents.
Today, the country has 730,000 youth under the age bracket of 13-17. The WHO report also outlined reasons that mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and illness may have led to behavioral problem of inculcating the habits of smoking and abusing drugs.
