ASH and EWC deplore sales of cigarette-mimicking sweets
26 September 2026, Quezon City. Two public interest organizations pressed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to act against the proliferation of cigarette-like sweets, such as candy sticks and lollipops, as they contribute to the behavioral and psychological conditioning that normalizes smoking for children.
ASH Philippines and EcoWaste Coalition deplore the sale of cigarette-like candy sticks and lollipops, and calls on the FDA to ban them.
In a letter sent to FDA OIC-Director General Franklin Anthony M. Tabaquin IV on September 25, Dr. Maricar Limpin, Executive Director of the Action on Smoking & Health (ASH Philippines), and Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, expressed deep concern over online product listings and reels promoting children’s consumption of cigarette-looking candies.
Among the products monitored and reported to the FDA are Cigarette Candy, Good Flavor Smoke Candy, Lollipop Cigarette Pop, Lollipops (Non-Cigarette Candy), MM Xiong Trendy Candy Stick, Sugar Tobacco Stick Lollipop, and Trendy Lollipops.
As pointed out by the groups, tobacco-themed candy sticks and lollipops:
1. Glamorize and normalize smoking practices among children at a very young age, allowing them to experience the act of smoking, from holding the cigarette stick between their fingers to putting it to their mouth.
2. Desensitize the minds of young children to the dangers of tobacco, subliminally instilling that smoking is a fun, harmless, and acceptable activity.
The groups also emphasized that these cigarette look-alike sweets contravene the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), signed and ratified by the Philippines, which listed the banning of sales to and by minors as one of the tobacco control measures to be enforced by parties, including “prohibiting the manufacture and sale of sweets, snacks, toys or any other objects in the form of tobacco products, which appeal to minors.”
Stringent sanctions against the manufacture and sale of tobacco-themed products, which appeal to minors, will help prevent youth uptake of tobacco and related products.
To stop the unbridled marketing of tobacco-themed candies that glamorize and normalize tobacco use, ASH Philippines and the EcoWaste Coalition urged the FDA to:
1. Issue an advisory to explain the problems associated with cigarette-like candies and the responsibility of the government and society to safeguard children from future cigarette use and nicotine addiction, including warning businesses not to manufacture, import, distribute, promote, advertise, or sell tobacco-themed products.
2. Order the administrators of online shopping and social media platforms to take down product listings of cigarette-like candies, noting that these products lack certificates of product registration and their importation, distribution, promotion, advertising, and sale are deemed illegal under RA 9711, or the FDA Act of 2009.
3. Encourage importers, distributors, and retailers who still have stocks of cigarette-like candies to voluntarily surrender them to the nearest FDA offices for environmentally sound disposal.
4. Work with Congress to enact more stringent sanctions against manufacturers, importers, distributors, promoters, advertisers, and sellers of look-alike tobacco sweets, snacks, toys, and other objects appealing to minors, as well as sanctions against digital platforms where these are traded.
Stringent sanctions, ASH Philippines and EcoWaste Coalition said, will align with stricter implementation of the FCTC, Article 16 in particular, to better prevent youth uptake of tobacco and similar products.
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Reference:
https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/264104b3-241a-4e48-88f9-aa7120779ffc/content
