The Council of Ministers has approved on Tuesday the bill with which the Ministry of Health seeks to stop the consumption of alcohol among minors in Spain. The text, which was approved in the first round to the end of July, is ready to be sent to Congress and start processing. This is the first national standard focused on children and adolescents and seeks to reverse a worrying figure: more than half of the students between 14 and 18 have drunk alcohol in the last month, According to the latest study survey. A third of them, in addition, has done it to binge.
The consumption of this substance affects “brain development and educational performance”, favors risk behaviors and increases the possibilities of developing “future addictions,” said the Minister of Health, Mónica García, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, in which she recalled that “there is no sure amount that does not imply a negative impact on health.” “We have to banish that anti -scientific idea that there are health benefits in moderate consumption. It does not contribute any benefit to our children and adolescents, ”he added to the line often.
Health seeks, above all, to act in an environment that culturally normalizes drinking alcohol. That is, suppress as far as possible the environmental stimuli that can push to drink alcohol, with strategies similar to those already used with tobacco. The ministerial team considers that the problem is not so much individual action but the “flattering environment” and, although it assumes that it is not realistic aspiring to zero consumption, it is intended to maximize the age of onset. The sooner, the more impact on health.
The text, recalled the minister, arises from the recommendations of the ‘minors without alcohol’ of the Mixed Congress-senated commission for the study of the drug problem, which were approved unanimously by all parliamentary groups in 2018. With this guarantee the government intends to collect the support of a very fragmented parliament where the majorities are difficult to achieve.
The resulting norm harmonizes the regulations that already exist in different autonomous communities and municipalities and introduces some novelties. Some measures, however, have been modified after negotiations within the Executive. These are the main ones:
New alcohol -free spaces
Alcohol consumption in all educational centers is prohibited, except in universities. Also in the residences of students who admit minors or in centers for the protection of boys and girls. Some regional norms already include this prohibition, but now it is harmonized in a law for the entire State. For example, teachers will not be able to choose an alcoholic beverage in the school dining room menu.
Health also intends to get the alcohol of events frequented by minors. For example a concert for children or a children’s soccer match. In these environments, the consumption of alcoholic beverages will be prohibited, by adults also to avoid the exposure of adolescents to these products.
In fact, the law empowers police forces to perform breathalyzer tests “in specific places and circumstances” in which alcohol consumption is prohibited, as events whose target audience is children. These tests can be performed both to adults and minors. And fines may be suspended if minors participate in preventive or rehabilitating programs, according to health.
More restrictions on ads
The law establishes new limitations for advertisements related to alcoholic beverages. Minors may not be directed in any case, but neither use the image or voice of people under 21 years or pregnant women. Nor will it be allowed, once the standard enters into force, that real or fiction characters that are popular for the youngest population participate in this advertising.
It is also forbidden to use claims that try to link consumption with “social or sexual success” or “physical performance.” The initial intention of the Ministry was to banish the message of “responsible consumption” that appears in many ads because it considers it false as there is no harmless threshold for health but finally the article, “after negotiating with other ministries”, it has been written as follows: it will not be possible to “infrastimate the risks for the health of alcoholic beverage consumption”.
Protection around schools
The project forces to move any advertising about alcoholic beverages from educational centers. Brands will not be able to install ads in marques or in any other visible furniture on public roads within a radius of 150 meters. This includes, they specified from the ministry in summer, the promotional tables and awnings of beer brands that the bars usually have. The distance also operates whether there are parks or children’s leisure places; and in the vicinity of health, socio -health and social services health centers.
The measure will enter into force a year after the publication of the law but will not affect “the existing situations before that moment,” he health. Initially the restriction was also going to apply to 0.0% products but this point has been eliminated from the project in relation to beer and wine without, although it remains for 0.0%distillates. In fact, advertising of fermented drinks will be allowed below 0.5% alcohol.
In the urgencies and in the curriculum
The law incorporates “new content” on consumption prevention at all educational levels and programs so that families have tools. The text encourages extracurricular activities to “raise awareness about healthy lifestyles and delay the beginning of alcohol consumption.”
In the health field, protocols will be developed to detect it in the consultations or foresee the inclusion of records on consumption in the medical records. Chicas and girls attended in the emergency services for an ethyl poisoning will go through a comprehensive evaluation that will imply, if they are under 16 years of age, to their parents or guardians.
Measures in stores and bars
When the public administrations authorize or not the opening of new establishments “may take into account” aspects such as the concentration of points of sale or their proximity to educational centers, centers for the protection of minors or places where there are recreational activities for children and young people. The law intends that people who are dedicated to the sale of alcohol are formed on their harmful effects in minors.
In self -service establishments, such as supermarkets, beverages must be placed in a specific space of the separate premises from areas with products for minors. If the establishment sells mostly to children and adolescents, “or products that imitate them” may not have available.
If dispensing machines – within or out of establishments – must incorporate “effective technical mechanisms” to prevent their purchase from minors as with the devices to acquire tobacco.
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