Written by: Belinda Loring

This policy guidance aims to support European policy-makers to improve the design and implementation of policies to reduce inequities in tobacco-related harm. Smoking kills more Europeans than any other avoidable factor. Socioeconomic inequities in tobacco consumption in Europe are extensive, and are widening. The overall reduction in smoking in Europe has been a public health success, but the effects have mainly been seen in middle- and high-income groups, causing a substantial widening of inequities. Reducing health inequities is a key strategic objective of Health 2020 – the European policy framework for health and well-being endorsed by the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region in 2012. This guide seeks to assist European policy-makers in contributing to achieving the objectives of Health 2020 in a practical way. It draws on key evidence, including from the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Review of social determinants and the health divide in the WHO European Region. It sets out options and practical methods to reduce the level and unequal distribution of tobacco use in Europe, through approaches that address the social determinants of tobacco use and the related health, social and economic consequences.

Author: Transform Drug Policy Foundation

Despite the lack of evidence that more punitive drug laws significantly deter drug use, criminalisation remains the primary weapon in the war on drugs. But using the criminal justice system to solve a public health problem has proven not only ineffective, but also socially corrosive. It promotes stigmatisation and discrimination, the burden of which is largely carried by already marginalised or vulnerable populations, many of whom the policy is nominally designed to protect.

Author: Transform Drug Policy Foundation

The growing costs of the war on drugs – particularly for the worst affected producer and transit countries – have now reached a crisis point that is driving an increasingly high-level and mainstream debate on drug policy and law reform. But while there is a growing consensus that current approaches to drug control have been ineffective or actively counterproductive, there is less agreement on how these shortcomings should be addressed.

Author: EUCAM

Beers with a high alcohol content are prevalent throughout Europe. They are also easily accessible, relatively inexpensive and often packaged in ‘super-sized’ containers (up to bottles of three litres). This research was conducted by EUCAM in 16 European countries.

Full title: The Relationship between Minimum Alcohol Prices, Outlet Densities and Alcohol Attributable Deaths in British Columbia, 2002 to 2009

Authors: Jinhui Zhao, Tim Stockwell, Gina Martin, Scott Macdonald, Kate Vallance, Andrew Treno, William R. Ponicki, Andrew Tu and Jane Buxton.

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between periodic increases in minimum alcohol prices, changing densities of liquor stores and alcohol attributable (AA) deaths in British Columbia, Canada. The findings of this research show that increases in the minimum price of alcohol in British Columbia, Canada, between 2002 and 2009 were associated with immediate and delayed decreases in alcohol attributable mortality. By contrast, increases in the density of private liquor stores were associated with increases in alcohol attributable mortality.