The government is cutting subsidies for tobacco prevention. The total budget for tobacco, gambling and drug prevention will be reduced from SEK 196 million last year to SEK 95.6 million in 2021, affecting organisations working against tobacco. Several commentators are now raging against the proposal.
"The whole world is talking about how to reduce the burden on the healthcare system. So it is strange, to say the least, that the Swedish government chooses to de-prioritise preventive work."
Representatives of 18 lobbying organisations, including Tobacco Facts and the foundation a Non Smoking Generation, write in the the newspaper Alltinget.
Lobbying organisations share 10 million
In 2020, the Swedish Public Health Agency awarded a total of €10 million to nine different tobacco prevention organisations. The most the think tank Tobacco Facts which was awarded just over SEK 3 million. The second largest award went to the foundation A non-smoking generationn, which received SEK 2.5 million.
Tobaksfakta is a lobbying organisation that works actively against the establishment of e-cigarettes as an alternative to analogue cigarettes. Banning flavours and exposure bans are some of the organisation's campaign issues in 2020. The organisation advocates instead nicotine medicines for smoking cessation.
"We will fight the nicotine industry's myth that all smokers need new products to quit smoking. Instead, smokers need society's support to remove the cigarette from the market and qualified treatment for their nicotine addiction". Wrote the think tank's founder and chairman Göran Boethius in the Läkartidningen earlier this autumn.
Gets money from other sources
How they decreased appropriations The impact on individual organisations is not yet known. Tobaksfakta states on its website that it also takes contributions from other organisations. funds and foundations to carry out its activities.
"We believe that the government and parliament should allocate at least as much as during the first strategy period (2011-2015), which would mean about SEK 265 million annually". Writes the organisations in Alltinget.
