The Society of Family Physicians of Ghana is advocating stricter legislation to increase taxes on tobacco products in order to curb what the group describes as rising interest in smoking among the youth.

Vice President of the society, Dr. Gerhard Ofori-Amankwah, says members have been critically examining a 2010 Ghana Youth Survey in which 7.7 percent of the youth in second cycle schools smoke.

He observes more tobacco-related diseases are being reported at the country’s health facilities. He was speaking at a ceremony to mark World Family Doctors Day in Kumasi.

Dr. Ofori-Amankwa explained that the figures are scary because it means seven out of every 100 students are smokers which make a call to action is as urgent as yesterday.

"By the statistics we see the increasing number of youth smoking, are we going to wait for the next five years when these individuals are at the university or when they have occupied jobs in society and are occupying the middle class?" he queried.  

"There are has to be a political will to adopt some of the frameworks that have been passed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and part of that includes increasing the taxes so that it becomes a discouragement," he added.

In a related development, the across the world, Friday saw the introduction of brightly coloured branding tobacco packs when standardised (or ‘plain’) cigarette packaging legislation comes in to effect.

Cigarette packs will now be a single colour - ‘Pantone 448 C opaque couché’ (according to market research the 'world's ugliest colour'), and the brand name will be written in a standard font, size and location.

New health warnings covering 60 percent of the pack will also be introduced. All cigarette packs and tobacco pouches manufactured for sale in the UK will have to comply with these regulations, and within a year, there should be no branded packs on shelves at all.

Ireland and France are also introducing this legislation.