Burning a hole

The Lebanese government has developed a habitual pattern of behavior in regards to progressive policy: the idea is lit with good intentions, smoked by vested interests and political squabbling, then forgotten like ash flicked away in the wind. When not tossed aside entirely, major policy initiatives are often simply relegated to an indefinite sentence in a bottom drawer somewhere in parliament. There have been signs recently that government may be trying to curb this damaging addiction, however, in light of the tobacco control legislation currently being mulled by politicians. The first puff The draft law on tobacco control was first proposed in 2004 by Member of Parliament Atef Majdalni – who was also the acting chairman of the Public Health Parliamentary Committee at the time — as well as MPs Nasser Kandil, Ghattas Khoury and Ahmad Fatfat, only to find itself promptly shelved. In March 2004 Lebanon signed, and later