It is now clear that Sweden will have a new tobacco policy target for the next five years. The Parliament decided this on Wednesday. Instead of reducing nicotine use, the goal will now be to "reduce the medical and social harm" caused by tobacco and other nicotine products.
"All products in the field of ANDT are harmful to health, but in the Government's view it is important to clarify the differences in the degree of harm caused by different tobacco and nicotine products that have been scientifically demonstrated. Cigarettes and smoking tobacco pose a greater health hazard than smokeless tobacco and nicotine products such as snus. "
So writes the government in the proposal adopted by Parliament have now voted in favour of.
The proposal, which is part of the the budget proposal, won a vote in Parliament with 175 votes in favour and 129 against. A clear majority. And according to Johan Hultberg, who was the driving force behind the proposal, the decision is important for the future, particularly in terms of measures to tackle nicotine use in Sweden.
"We have a new overall objective for tobacco and nicotine policy. The focus should be on reducing the harms of use and not necessarily the use itself," he told Vejpkollen.
Policies of the previous government
The current Swedish strategy for ANDTS (alcohol, drugs, doping, tobacco and gambling) has not had a majority in Parliament since 2022. The ANDTS strategy provides a framework for allocating resources to realise drug policy objectives and is usually renewed every five years. The current strategy builds on the policies of the previous government and has been in force pending the adoption of a new strategy by Parliament.
Authorities receive new directives
In practice, this has meant that the aim of various initiatives, including from the Public Health Agency of Sweden, has continued to be to discourage and make it more difficult to use all nicotine products, without taking into account the major differences in risk between the use of different products such as cigarettes, snus and e-cigarettes. Something that Vejpkollen highlighted on several occasions. With the new decision in Parliament, these measures will likely need to be modified to implement Parliament's decision.
"The ANDTS target guides policy in this area and I think this will play a big role." says Johan Hultberg to Vejpkollen.
Concerns about increased use
The opposition, the Social Democrats with the Green Party and the Left Party, have entered a reservation against the decision. They believe that the risk of the new tobacco policy objective is that more young people will start using smoke-free nicotine products.
Leonid Yurkovski, member of the Social Affairs Committee for the Sweden Democrats, welcomed the decision.
"It's a victory that we now have a more results-oriented tobacco and nicotine policy, with a clearer focus on harm reduction instead of the very generalised goal of reducing use." he told Vejpkollen.
At the same time, he believes that legislation and policy in this area should be able to combine both harm reduction and protection against young people becoming addicted to nicotine.
"Of course, society should move in a direction where fewer young people in particular start using nicotine, but understanding and taking into account the harmful effects of different products is obvious and essential. Few today can question that snus, for example, is a less harmful alternative to cigarettes." he tells Vejpkollen.
