GOVERNMENT has "about a week" to settle in, then the National Committee for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Dependency (NCPADD) will come knocking.

"We want Government to comply with the framework convention on tobacco control. We will be giving the Minister of Health and the
Attorney-General about a week, then we will be establishing meetings and discussing our agenda with them," said NCPADD president Victor Roach.

He added: "This is a do-or-die situation. We are not prepared to take any political posturing as this issue has to do with people's health. So many problems flow from tobacco use it would be unconscionable to ignore it, and we don't intend to let up."

Roach was joined in his quest to see smoking banned from public areas by Scotland-born Doreen McIntyre, the director of the International
Non-Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco, a London-based organisation formed 12 years ago in recognition by separate health agencies that they were all dealing with the effects of the same product – tobacco,

The pair spoke to the DAILY NATION on Friday during a visit to THE NATION's Fontabelle office.

(CA)