Estonia, Law and Regulations, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Society

Madise said that although tobacco smoking affects both smokers and those around them adversely, that activity is also in the Constitution's protection sphere. Restricting smoking is usually motivated by the need to protect weightier fundamental rights such as the right to protection of health, but nevertheless it is a fundamental right, and its disproportionate restriction is not acceptable, she said.

Madise said that smokers' rights can be restricted, in the interests of the health of non-smokers, in prison rooms, which are not adjusted so that the health of non-smokers was not significantly endangered.

A total ban on smoking, however, can lead to tobacco products being extensively and illegally smuggled into prisons and their continued use despite the ban, she said, referring to similar tendencies in other states that have banned smoking in prisons.

Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Justice plan to make Estonian prisons a completely smoke-free territory by November 1, 2016, which would mean that the ban would apply besides inmates also on prison staff and visitors. The explanatory memorandum of the bill states that as of May, the number of prison inmates that smoke is 2,126, or 77% of the inmates.