Outrage is growing in Ghana over a new product known as ‘Cigarette Rod Lollipop’ or ‘Smoking Pop Candy’ which is increasingly being sold to children.
The product features sticks designed to look like lit cigarettes, complete with orange tips, and is packaged in boxes with cartoons of children smoking. It has sparked intense conversations online.
Ghanaians including pharmacist Dr. George Anagli, musician Kofi Kinaata, and many others are calling out the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) for allowing it on the shelves, citing the risk of glamorizing smoking to children.
The conversation was triggered by a post on X by Dr. George, which featured a video of a young man raising awareness about the influx of the candy and how it has become a sensation among school children.
The post captioned, “How on earth was this allowed onto the Ghanaian market? @fdaghana” has since gained over half a million reactions, with calls for authorities to impose a total ban.
Some of the comments include:
Khendrich on X wrote: “So FDA allowed this nonsense on the market? We’ve lost our morals as a country. They are teaching kids how to smoke now?”
Chief added: “We are such an interesting country. Someone imported this, sent them to suppliers and suppliers got grown adults to sell them…”
Mohammad Yasiim added: “Ghana has the weakest regulatory system. Literally anything can find its way into our markets.”
Seth Doe Esq. added: “No one invests into cigarette candy unless they’re intentionally creating the next generation of smokers. It’s the cigarette suppliers who can pay to import and distribute to create the new generation of smokers in five years. The 12-year-old candy boy will start smoking by 16.”
What Ghanaian Law Says
The sale of this product is illegal under Ghana’s tobacco control laws.
According to the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) and the Tobacco Control Regulations, 2016 (L.I. 2247):
Section 61(2): A person shall not sell, display for sale, supply, or advertise a non-tobacco product or service that contains, either on the product or in an advertisement of the product, a writing, picture, image, graphics, message, or other matter that is commonly identified or associated with, or is likely or intended to be associated with a tobacco product, brand or manufacturer.
Section 62(1)(b): A person shall not package, label or offer for sale a product that looks like or is likely to be identified with or associated with tobacco or a tobacco product.
Regulation 16(1): A person shall not manufacture, import, export, supply, possess, or offer for sale an illicit tobacco or tobacco product.
Penalty: Contravention of the law is an offence punishable by a fine of not more than 750 penalty units (currently GH¢9,000) or a term of imprisonment of not more than 3 years, or both. In the case of a continuing offence, a further fine applies for each day the offence continues.
The FDA has consistently stated that products that mimic tobacco in packaging and appearance, especially those targeted at children, are prohibited and must be removed from the market immediately.
By Prince Fiifi Yorke