2024-12-17 08:58:00
According to the latest major drug use survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, alcohol consumption remains stable, but excessive alcohol consumption is decreasing.
The number of smokers in Spain has fallen to the lowest levels in 30 years, the Ministry of Health’s EDADES survey has found. The latest edition, published on Tuesday, shows a sharp decline that changes the trend towards stagnation or even growth of the last decade. 25.8% of the population between 15 and 64 years old (to whom the study is aimed) smokes daily, which represents a decrease of more than seven points compared to 2022, the date of the last study.
The report, produced every two years by the National Anti-drug Plan, also notes a decline in the consumption of hypnosedatives (tranquilisers, including anxiolytics) and binge eating, even if alcohol consumption has been very stable for years: 76.5 % of the population drank alcoholic beverages in the last 12 months.
Alcohol is the most consumed potentially addictive substance, followed by tobacco (36.8% of consumption in the last 12 months), cannabis (12.6%, slightly increasing) and tranquilizers, with or without prescription (12 %). Cocaine is much lower (2.5%) and other substances even lower. Alcohol and tobacco also have the earliest onset: (16.4 and 16.6 years respectively), while the average age for cannabis, the illegal substance with the earliest onset, is 18.4 years.
All consumption, with the exception of drugs with potential addiction (anxiolytics, benzodiazepines, opioids), is driven by men and the prevalent age is between 15 and 34 years. In hypnosedatives and opioid analgesics, however, it increases after the age of 35.
As the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, underlined, the trend of most substances is downward: “I think this contrasts very clearly with certain discourses; They try to import debates from other contexts into Spain and paint an apocalyptic present in drug consumption which is not a reality in our country. There is awareness, a regulatory framework and a healthcare system with an existing prescription system ensure that the consumption of opioid painkillers does not get out of hand.”
The consumption, with or without prescription, of this type of drugs, which are mainly used against pain and which have caused an enormous public health problem in some American countries, especially in the United States, has decreased slightly: 3.9% of the population has consumed in the last month, even if their use is higher than when they were included in the survey (2.9% in 2018). In Spain, the consumption of fentanyl, the main cause of the great crisis in that continent, has decreased: 5.5% of the population admits to having used it, less than half compared to two years ago, but more than double compared to 2018.
Perceived availability of illegal drugs has declined substantially, according to the National Plan, “as a result of supply control efforts.” Those perceived as most accessible are cannabis (59% of those interviewed believe they can obtain it easily in 24 hours) and cocaine (40.6%). For other illegal substances, the perception of availability is much lower.
Causes of the decline in smoking
The sharp decline in smokers in a single edition may be due to several factors, as explained by Ramón Villalbí, Government delegate for the National Drug Plan: “In addition to the fluctuations that may have to do with the case, there are demographic changes, population the young people who join the sample and smoke less, the older population who quit, other foreigners in whose countries smoking is not common, especially among women”.
Padilla added that the debate surrounding tobacco regulation could also have an impact. This year, the Ministry of Health presented a series of initiatives, starting with a national plan, to reduce the number of smokers. This will materialize in a royal decree already in public hearing and in a law that the department intends to pass this legislature with measures such as the expansion of smoke-free spaces. “The best anti-tobacco campaign is to make it a ministerial priority,” the Secretary of State said. To which Villalbí added that the year with the greatest reduction in smoking in Spain was 2004, when the first anti-smoking law, approved in 2005, was being discussed.
The B side of this reality is that the number of people who have smoked using electronic devices has grown significantly. According to the survey, it went from 12.1% to 19%. Regular consumers are also growing, but with much smaller numbers: those who have used it in the last 30 days have doubled (4.6%), while the increase in those who use it daily is much more limited (1.3% , three tenths more than in 2022).
Fewer than half of smokers of these devices use them to quit smoking, in a trend that has continued to decline since measurements began six years ago. “This contradicts the discourse of industry employers who say the majority of use is abandonment,” said Padilla, who believes the decline in traditional tobacco smokers cannot be attributed to the rise of e-tobacco , since the three-tenth increase in these does not correspond to the almost eight-point drop in cigarettes. Pablo Linde
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