In an open letter addressed to the Minister of Health and made public this Thursday, October 11, specialists are campaigning for an increase in tax measures on alcohol to fight against addictions to psychoactive substances.
“The great absentee of financing”. This is how doctors describe alcohol in the plan to combat addiction to psychoactive substances presented by the Minister of Health as part of the Social Security budget project for 2019. In a letter addressed to Agnès Buzyn and made public this Thursday, October 11, nine renowned doctors such as epidemiologist Catherine Hill, professors Amine Benyamina (psychiatry, addictology), Gérard Dubois (public health), or the president and vice-president of the National Association of prevention in Alcoholism and addictology (Anpaa) Nicolas Simon and Bernard Basse complain about the lack of tax measures against alcohol.
Government alcohol prevention is limited to a “picrocholine discussion”, on the size in millimeters of the pictogram “prohibited for pregnant women”, deplore the specialists in the missive entitled Minister, protect the French from alcohol. “The excellent results obtained in the fight against tobacco (1 million less smokers in one year) thanks to the rise in the price of tobacco, nevertheless show the way forward because they confirm the effectiveness of taxation and marketing control,” they note.
The Social Security financing project plans to make its Fund for the fight against addictions linked to psychoactive substances benefit from new resources “corresponding to the product of fixed fines sanctioning the consumption of cannabis”. But if it seems impressive, this increase of 10 million euros “results from an announcement effect without common measure with the dimension of the problem” of alcohol in France, assure the signatories of the letter.
Alcohol, the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in children
Indeed, alcohol is directly responsible for 49,000 deaths per year, they point out. It is the second leading cause of cancer, the leading cause of death among 15-30 year olds and the leading cause of early onset dementia. Alcohol is also the number one cause of preventable mental retardation in children (born to a woman who drank for her pregnancy) and is implicated in more than half of violence against women, they note.
“Alcohol should not remain the eternal black hole of policies to prevent the consumption of psychoactive products. No Frenchman doubts the power of lobbies that manage to muzzle political action in the field of alcohol, subject of general interest which leagues against it the greatest number of particular interests”, they protest.
This is why, “without delay”, the Social Security Financing Act must integrate from 2019 “ano tax on alcoholic beverages according to the gram of pure alcohol to finance care” and “a tax on advertising expenditure – including on the Internet – to finance prevention”, they conclude.
On September 25, the government presented its social security budget for 2019, announcing for the first time since 2001, a social security surplus of 700 million euros. This plan provides significant savings on health insurance, pensions and family allowances. Without these “new measures”, the deficit would have plunged to 3 billion euros next year, assures the Social Security Accounts Commission. However, it will still be necessary to wait until 2024 before arriving at the extinction of the social debt.
.
