SPANN and Opstanok Demand National Programme for Prevention of Addictions
On the occasion of May 31, the World No-Tobacco Day, the Union for Prevention of Alcoholism, Nicotinism and Drug-Abuse of Macedonia and "Opstanok" environmental association demanded the urgent adoption of a National Programme for Prevention of Addictions, which will contribute to the state moving the focus of its activities from treatment of consequences to prevention.
According to the data available to the Union, the number of smokers in Macedonia is on the rise, contrary to the predominant global trends. At this moment, Macedonia is ranked second in Europe in terms of consumption of tobacco and tobacco products per capita, trailing only Poland. According to estimates, there are about 700,000 smokers in Macedonia, or about 35% of the total population. Nonetheless, Hadzi-Vaskov says that, due to the lack of National Strategy, nobody in the country is involved in systemic research and statistics, which prevents the action at the level of planning of activities. SPANN and "Opstanok" called for full and persistent implementation of the Law on Prevention of Smoking (adopted 11 years ago), which is hardly implemented today, which, according to Hadzi-Vaskov, "…speaks volumes about the rule of law in Macedonia". The two organizations also demand that all education and medical institutions are declared smoke-free zones. Hadzi-Vaskov pointed out that, once again, due to the lack of finances, the Union will not be able to implement an important segment of its programme, especially the "A Smoker Less", a project in which the public has already expressed great interest. |
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