The government is cutting grants 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. This affects, among others, organizations working against tobacco. Now several commentators are raging against the proposal.
"The whole world is talking about how we should reduce the burden on healthcare. So it is strange, to say the least, that the Swedish government chooses to prioritize the preventive work"
This is according to representatives of 18 lobbying organizations, including Tobaksfakta and the Non Smoking Generation Foundation, in the newspaper Alltinget.
Lobbying organizations share 10 million
In 2020, the Public Health Agency of Sweden awarded a total of €10 million to nine different tobacco prevention associations. The most received think tank Tobaksfakta which was awarded just over SEK 3 million. The next most went to the Foundation A non smoking generationn, which received SEK 2.5 million.
Tobaksfakta is a lobby organization that, among other things, works actively against the establishment of e-cigarettes as an alternative to analog cigarettes. Banning flavorings and exposure bans are some of the organization's campaign issues in 2020. The organization 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 cigarettes from the market and qualified treatment for their nicotine addiction." Wrote the think tank's founder and chairman Göran Boethius in Läkartidningen earlier this fall.
Receiving money from elsewhere
How they reduced appropriations The impact on the individual organizations is not yet known. Tobaksfakta states on its website that it also takes contributions from other funds and foundations to conduct their business.
"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". The organizations write in the Parliament.
