It is not yet this year, it seems, that the government will give its official support to the “January Challenge”, this month ” alcohol-free “ supported by prevention associations. The debate reignited with the questioning of the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, by around fifty academics and teachers of addiction. In a letter dated November 21, of which The Parisian echoedTuesday, December 12, this collective of scientists and doctors called on the State to support this “positive operation which consists for each (…) to question the place that alcohol takes in one’s life and to take up the challenge of not consuming it during this period, on a voluntary basis which is neither normative nor moralistic”. They are still waiting for a response.
Popularized in the United Kingdom under the name “Dry January”, this campaign, which has found a certain echo in society, has remained a sensitive subject for health authorities for a long time. “backpedaling” denounced by associations. At the end of 2019, while the national public health agency France had prepared a first variation of this operation, the government had reversed course, leaving the associative actors to carry out the system alone. “We learned this at the last moment from the president of the winegrowers’ union, who said that there would be no “dry January”, after leaving a meeting with the President of the Republic. , Emmanuel Macron », recalls Bernard Basset, president of the Addictions France association. An illustration, for addictologists, of the influence of “alcohol lobby”.
In their letter, the academics once again step up to the plate: “It appears that confidence in the government to pursue a coherent and resolute policy is seriously impaired”they emphasize, calling for “a strong gesture”. Especially since the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, seemed to open a door, by evoking the need to “also prepare a plan [sur l’alcool] »when he announced the anti-tobacco strategy on November 28.
“We are below everything”
During a trip to a Parisian pharmacy on Wednesday, December 13, Aurélien Rousseau, questioned several times on the subject during a tense microphone, kicked in, using a pirouette. “Personally, I’m going to get started, he replied. And not to be like everyone else, I started in “December”. » While defending his ” line “ : “Public health is not about telling people “there is a way of living that is good and a way of living that is not good”, (…) but be transparent about the risks associated with certain behaviors. »
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