The CEPS in Brong-Ahafo last Wednesday destroyed 2,192 cartons of assorted smuggled cigarettes with a street value of GH¢7,233.6. Also destroyed were quantities of unwholesome pharmaceutical products and 62 kilogrammes of Indian hemp. The Indian hemp was intercepted on the Techiman-Kumasi highway within the last two months. Briefing the press before the exercise in Sunyani, Mr. Samuel Tetteh-Quarshie, Assistant Commissioner and Brong-Ahafo Regional Commander of CEPS, said the cigarettes, smuggled into the country from Nigeria, were unwholesome. He said the pharmaceutical products were intercepted at the Ghana-Ivory Coast border at Oseikwadjokrom in the Western Region. Tettey-Quarshie explained that the Ghana Pharmaceutical Board was the only agency mandated to give licence for companies and individuals to transact business in the tobacco industry. "It is illegal to sell such products on the Ghanaian market since the board has a franchise with British American Tobacco (BAT) and they are the only agents with licence and mandate to supply cigarette products," Tetteh-Quarshie said. He stated: "We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BAT to intensify our anti¬-smuggling activities as well as maintain protection tariffs to help curtail the smuggling of tobacco into the country". Tetteh-Quarshie sai9 the destruction of the items received approval from the Narcotics Control Board and noted that the exercise was part of CEPS' service delivery with regard to public health and safety. The regional commander said those arrested for possessing the Indian hemp had been handed over to the police and the owners of the cigarettes managed to abandon the product. In the case of the pharmaceutical products, he said officials of the Food and Drugs Board were invited to examine the goods, which were declared as expired and unwholesome for human consumption. Source: B&FT