 |
 |
||
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
Please find below the Spanish Country Report produced by Socidrogalcohol, September 2003.
Alcohol consumption among adolescents
The results of the last school survey on drugs, the results of which were advanced in our last report, has been recently published (Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas: Encuesta sobre Drogas a Población Escolar 2002).
The sample was made up of 25,770 14 -18 year-old students belonging to 567 centres, interviewed in November 2002.
These are the general conclusions:
Youths, alcohol and driving
A study sponsored by the RACE (Royal Automobile Club of Spain) with the support of the Brewers of Spain and performed by the Carlos III University between the years 2001 and 2002, is at the point of being issued, but its main results are already available (Monclús J: Estudio PACE-Universidad Carlos III. Autoclub, 2003; pp: 22-23)
The study includes 2 phases: 1) empirical testing of the drinks one had to drink to overcome the legal BAC levels, and 2) survey on 4,157 youths between 18 and 25 years, approached between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights over 18 months in the leisure areas of the cities of Barcelona (North East), La Coruña (North West), Madrid (Centre), Sevilla (South) and Valencia (East).
As far as the number of drinks needed to reach the BAC limits, it was ascertained that a single "cubata" (long drink of rum or gin and coke, with an average content of 20 g of pure alcohol for glass) was enough to reach the legal BAC limit for novice and professional drivers (0.3). Females reached higher levels with the same amount of drinks (something expected because of the lower corporal mass and water content of women compared with men and metabolic reasons), but differences among individuals were also detected, thus backing the idea that nobody can be sure about how much he/she can drink without overcoming the legal limits, and that the best is not to drink while driving.
Concerning the information delivered by the youths, their favourite drink at the weekends nights is spirits (51%), followed by wine (14%), and beer (9%). Those drinking spirits had the highest BAC levels. Most of them stick to the same type of drink over the night. Those who mix, have the highest BACs (mean of 0.62 g/l). A third of youths who admitted to have drunk alcohol and accepted to be tested, had a BAC level >0.5 (legal limit for drivers in general). Combining the type of drink consumed and the mean BAC associated to each type, it can be concluded that the influence of alcohol in driving has to be attributed to spirits in 88% of cases. The most worrying fact is that 20% of youths declared their intention to drive that evening, independently of their current BAC level and 6% stated their intention to drive presenting already a BAC over 0.5. Important difference were found between genders, men doubling the women in intention to drive disregarding the BAC level.
Taking into account that spirits are the most consumed type of drink at evening leisure, that this is associated with higher BAC levels, that 1 in 5 youths has the intention to drive that night, and that vehicles are mostly occupied by 3-4 youngsters sharing a car, the report concludes that a high number of youths (and other road users) are exposed to big risks at the weekends. The president of RACE, Fernando Falcó, underlined at a press conference presenting those data in Madrid, that "alcohol and driving are incompatible, very specially in the case of youths, a risk group in itself because, to its own way of being and lack of experience, undesirable fellows have to be added at the weekend: alcohol and tiredness".
Drinking and driving
The fourth (year 2001) and consecutive study performed by the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Toxicología shows that dead drivers were mainly (90.5%) men and young (between 21- and 30-years of age).
As far as drugs are concerned, 48% of fatal traffic casualties had some drug in their blood.
Alcohol alone was found in 36.5% of drivers and in 35% of pedestrians. Alcohol together with other drugs appeared in 42.4% of casualties.
Males are far more represented than women alcohol was found in 44% of men and 15% of women.
The BAC level measured in most of cases was above 1.5 g/l
The drug which appeared most associated to alcohol was cocaine (2.7%).
Compared with former years, in 2001 the presence of drugs in fatal casualties (48%) had dropped compared with 1998 (51.2%), but increased compared with the year 1999 (43.2%) and had hardly changed compared with the year 2000 (47.5%).
Source: Revista de Tráfico 2003; Año XIX, nº 158: 20.
Note:
Nevertheless, this summer has been a disaster. According to the latest news, summer (July and August) fatal casualties have increased , after having been decreasing since the year 2000. The increase has been up to 4% in Spain (710 traffic crashes with 851 deaths) and up to 9% in Catalonia (with 100 accidents and 110 fatally injured). The president of the Royal Automobile Club of Spain has asked the administration to let civil society participate with proposals for curving the accidents.
National Strategy on Drugs 2000-2008
Those strategies put a special stress on prevention, especially on measures aimed at youths. Worth mentioning is, besides information and education programmes, the promotion of healthy leisure, aimed at counterbalancing the huge offer of evening leisure associated to the recreative use of drugs, mainly of alcohol. Almost 30 municipalities are running alternative healthy leisure programmes, sponsored by the National Plan on Drugs.
New Law 24/2003 of July 10th on the Vineyard and the Wine
Starting with the sentence "The wine and vineyard are inseparable from our culture", the law defines (title I, art. 2) the wine as " the natural food exclusively obtained by partial or total alcoholic fermentation of fresh grape, pressed or not, or from the grape must".
The law regulates the basic layout of the vineyard and wine within the European framework, including its designation, presentation, promotion and marketing (Title I, art. 1).
Concerning the promotion (Title I, art.4), The State Administration can fund the promotion of wine in the framework of the Spanish and European laws, which prohibit the underage consumption. Criteria for campaigns financed by the public funds are: to recommend the moderate and responsible consumption of wine, and to inform and spread the benefits of wine as a nutriment within the Mediterranean diet.
On the other hand, the law includes among the general principles of the protection system (Title II, art.12,c) "to guarantee the consumers protection and the accomplishment with the general principal of truthfulness...".
The new law on alcohol
After the Madrid congress on Youths, Night and Alcohol (February 2002), the government committed itself to produce a new law for the regulation of alcohol, with the main aim of preventing the alcohol abuse among adults and the alcohol consumption by minors. It also aims at preventing the defence and protection of the third parts rights (nuisance and other disturbances of the public order). It also tries to stop the legal inequalities, depending on the regions, concerning selling, serving and marketing alcohol products.
The law foresees interventions in specific environments and areas of important relevance for prevention, such as: family, school, sports, work place, leisure, community, and road safety.
Legal age for drinking has to be 18 in all the Spanish territory (there are still some regions with a legal limit of 16 years). Restrictions to publicity and other forms of marketing are going to become tougher than before.
The last law draft was reviewed by the commission of deputy secretaries in July 2003 and is at the point of being accepted by the Council of Ministers (press information ABC, 28-07-03). Its title won't be "Law for the Prevention of alcohol consumption", but "Law for the Prevention of Misuse of Alcoholic Beverages".
This last draft has been especially modified concerning restrictions to publicity and penalties. Severe restrictions are foreseen for publicity: advertisers won't be able to underline any positive value of their product. Concerning advertising in media, an agreement has been reached with the Spanish Society of Commercial Broadcasting, so that advertisements restriction shouldn't be by hours, but by programmes and profiles of the target. No alcohol advertising can be included at any time, in programmes aimed at minors or in those with a pedagogic or educational content. In the other programmes, where marketing is allowed, a verbal and free advice on the danger of alcohol should be added. Warnings such as " public authorities consider that heavy alcohol consumption produces addiction and serious harm for health" and "the alcohol consumption by minors damages their health and development".
Together with administrative penalties (fines), new punishments are meant for minors, such as the participation of community tasks of social interest. Offenders (selling, delivering or drinking alcohol by underage) between from 14 years on and up to 16, will be reproved and their parents or tutors will be contacted. Offenders between 16 and 17 years old, will be able to participate in community activities of social interest or, according to their parents preferences, pay a 50 to 300 euros fine (no mention of the length of the community work and the possibility for the parents to decide, are new in this last draft law). Adult offenders (from 18 years on) will have to pay 50-600 euros. Additional penalties are described in this last draft: driver's license withdrawal and suspension of the right to get one for a period between one and six months, as well as weapons' license withdrawal and suspension of the right to get one for a period between one and six months.
All the possible advances will counterbalanced by a worrying but not surprising fact, taking into account the approved law on the Vineyard and Wine: wine will be not included in the limitations posed the alcohol law. This beverage will be regulated by the specific norms of the wine sector.
The brewers and cider producers have already claimed against their discrimination
TWF
To have proper information on the fulfillment of the Directive in Spain is hard work. Anyway, the general opinion, delivered by some associations of consumers, is that the Directive has been often severely broken. We are high in the ranking of countries with too much publicity. Claims are also on the content of alcohol advertising on TV, and some have been denounced.
FIATYR (Federacion Ibérica de Usuarios de Telecomunicación y Radiodifusión) , together with other 17 organisations, have called for the creation of a High Audiovisual Council with the possibility to supervise the fulfillment of the present law, and with the capability to punish those who break it. In Catalonia, there is already a Catalan Audiovisual Council.
Amsterdam Group
The Amsterdam Group invited A. Gual, the president of Socidrogalcohol, to attend the Stakeholder Workshop that TAG is organizing next October in Brussels. The invitation has been kindly declined, quoting our position, in agreement with the EUROCARE one, of declining any meting which is not under the auspices of the European Institutions that have clear responsibilities concerning alcohol policies and public health.
Spanish Brewers
A new self-regulation code of conduct has been issued by the Brewers of Spain, in agreement with the Spanish Consumers and Users Association. This version improves the former one, published in 1995, the question being more the enforcement than the approval of such a regulation. According to he information appeared in the White Book of Beer (2001), this new code should be extended to the rest of the Spanish consumers associations via the Council of Consumers and Users with the "express" backing of the Administration via the National Institute of Consumption.
1996 - 2005 Eurocare