'Cigarette law constitutional'

By Lee Kyung-min

The Constitutional Court ruled Monday that the law on manufacturing and sales of cigarettes does not infringe upon individual rights.

Earlier, nine people filed a petition with the court to review the constitutionality of the law, claiming the country must scrap the law and ban smoking and cigarette sales.

However, the court rejected this petition, saying there was no concrete evidence yet to prove a direct link between smoking and fatal illnesses, such as lung cancer.

“The effects of smoking are still being disputed. The government does not have the responsibility to ban manufacturing or sales of cigarettes,” the court said in its ruling. “Also, no evidence has been established that cigarettes cause addiction to the point that a person is rendered incapable of making an autonomous decision to smoke or quit.”

The court also said it was hard to say that the government was negligent in its duty to protect its people because it is maintaining the law.

Those who filed the petition included former National Cancer Center head Park Jae-gap, a lung cancer patient, a pregnant woman, high school students and doctors.

Park has subsequently issued a statement to denounce the court’s ruling.