Alcoholmisbruik bij de jeugd

Tijdens de  informele raad van de ministers bevoegd voor volksgezondheid werd van gedachten gewisseld over hoe - dikwijls misleidende - reklame jongeren aanzet tot alcohol gebruik.  Dit werd aanschouwelijk voorgesteld door 6 jongeren.  Tevens werd een rapport voorgesteld over gebruik van alcohol, tabak en drugs in Europa.

Na de bijeenkomst werd volgende persmededeling verspreid:

"Alcohol and young people

On Tuesday, the EU ministers at the EPSCO-meeting in Jönköping discussed how marketing of alcohol influences young people's drinking habits. Under EU rules, marketing targeted at young people is not allowed. To show how difficult it is to evaluate what is seen as attractive and how young people understand messages, the ministers were shown alcohol advertisements that had been reported to and examined by the branch's own supervisory body. The participants answered questions using an audience response system.

Six young people from countries including the Netherlands, Romania and Italy participated in the exercise. Oana Barbu from Romania was one of them.
"It was a good exercise. I hope it will help the ministers in their decisions. For us, it was interesting."
In Romania, alcohol is advertised on television.
"I think we young people are often a target group for the advertisements. They usually show alcohol as something social, something that makes you more extrovert and social", said Oana Barbu.

Björn Hibell from the Swedish Federation of Alcohol and Drug Awareness also attended the meeting and presented the results of a survey of young people's alcohol, smoking and drug habits in Europe. The survey has been carried out regularly over several years.
"Young people's smoking has reduced over time, as well as their usage of cannabis. However, young people's ‘binge drinking', defined as five or more drinks at one time, has increased", explained Björn Hibell.

The morning concluded with a discussion on what action can be taken to protect children and young people from marketing of alcoholic drinks. The ministers agreed that action was needed to protect young people."