Co-chair of the all-Russian movement for the rights of smokers Olga Beklemisheva and Director of the Institute of narcological health of the nation Oleg Zykov for the TV channel “360” assessed “concept of state policy on combating tobacco consumption for the years 2017-2022 and beyond” proposed by the healthcare Ministry.
Thus, according to Beklemishevo, the Agency does their job. “I think [the initiative is] another brilliant demonstration of how the Ministry of health does their job. Instead of trying to improve the health outcomes and life expectancy, they do all sorts of stupid bans,” she said.
She suggested that in the future of the tobacco market will go underground.
At the same time, Zykov noted that the formation of the policy of reducing demand for tobacco — not “Russian fantasy”, the whole world is moving in this direction. The expert stressed that the clause prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to those born after 2015 cannot be considered in isolation from the overall concept, as it consists of many events.
“Most importantly, we must realize that all our efforts are aimed at young people, those who are still children, that they existed in the atmosphere of rejection of Smoking as the norm,” said Zykov, adding on the tobacco lobby, which, according to him, will continue the discussion about the violation of the rights of smokers. “The tobacco industry is the enemy”, — he stressed.
Earlier, on 9 January, the state Duma Committee on health promised to examine the proposal to ban the sale of tobacco products to those born after 2015. However, the head of the Committee Dmitry Morozov noted that the initiative looks raw and needs to be discussed.
The main goal of the concept is reducing by 2025 the prevalence of tobacco consumption among the population to 25 percent.