Everyone is familiar with the recent smoking regulations that have affected smokers all over the world. In 2004 Ireland became the first country to prohibit smoking in all indoor workplaces including restaurants and bars. In 2008 a small mountainous kingdom between India and China called Bhutan was the first to ban smoking and tobacco sales outright. Authorities celebrated the ban by igniting a bonfire of cigarettes in the capital city and hanging banners across the main thoroughfare urging people to kick the habit. Violators in Bhutan are fined $232 (more than two months’ salary) The Ban on tobacco has caused an increase in the illegal trade of tobacco products to Bhutan. No other country so far has banned smoking and tobacco outright.

Interesting Fact: The first modern, nationwide tobacco ban was imposed by the Nazi Party. Smoking was prohibited in every German university, post office, military hospital, and Nazi Party office. The Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research was created in 1941 under orders from Adolf Hitler. Major anti-tobacco campaigns were widely broadcast by the Nazis until the end of the regime in 1945.

[VIA]