Row in France as government reluctant to back dry January
Addiction experts urge state to promote month of abstinence but alcohol lobby says idea is out of step with French culture
A
group of senior academics and doctors working on addiction have written
to the French health minister to say that not enough is being done by
the state to campaign on alcohol risks, and the government should
support an alcohol-free month at the start of the year.
Dry January, which started in the UK 10 years ago, was introduced to France in 2020 as the “défi de janvier”,
or January challenge, promoted by health charities. It has grown in
popularity with more than 60% of French people wanting to try it in
2024, according to a BVA poll for the Association Addictions France, but
the French state health body has not promoted dry January and
politicians are reluctant to get onboard.
The senior academics and doctors said in their
unprecedented letter that state support for the initiative would be an
opportunity and a “strong sign” that would “calm” the debate on alcohol
consumption in France.
“It
appears that trust in the government to run a coherent and resolute
political [approach to alcohol] has seriously deteriorated,” the letter
said, adding it was “more than a shame” that the government continued to
keep its distance from the French version of dry January.
After
the US, France is the second biggest consumer of wine in the world, and
French politicians listen closely to the country’s wine industry, which
employs 500,000 people.
Emmanuel Macron
is seen within France as the most pro-alcohol president since the
second world war, saying he drinks wine every day, at lunchtime and in
the evening, and that a meal without wine was “a bit sad”. He was filmed
this year downing a bottle of beer in 17 seconds in a rugby changing-room.
The
powerful French alcohol lobby argues that France is a nation that
traditionally drinks in moderation, so the UK’s dry January month of
abstinence is out of step with its culture and better suited to northern
European binge-drinkers.
Yet health campaigners point to figures such as recent polling by the French League against Cancer, which found that 70% of French parents saw no problem in giving their teenagers alcohol during the festive season.
Olivier Cottencin, the head of the national body of university professors in addiction studies, who coordinated the letter, said it was surprising that the French government backed a tobacco-free month every November, but not an alcohol-free month.
He said scientific research on dry January in the UK had shown an immediate positive impact on health, including on sleep and blood pressure, and a reduced level of alcohol consumption for many months until the summer. “We want to mobilise the government because in France we know it’s important that the state gets involved with prevention.”
Amine Benyamina, the head of the psychiatry and
addiction service at Paul-Brousse hospital and president of the French
Federation of the study of Addiction, said: “We don’t want a country
without alcohol, we want a country that is very strong on spelling out
the risks. The risks linked to alcohol, as the scientific literature
incites us to provide, are not given in France.”
He
said there was reluctance from French politicians, adding: “It’s not
simply the government, it’s the whole political class in all its
diversity, which in unison does not want to tackle the problem of
alcohol in France.”
Benyamina cited state figures that an estimated 42,000 deaths a year in France were linked to alcohol.
A government-backed campaign on alcohol in January 2023 that showed people clinking their glasses and saying “santé”
(health), followed by the question: “Isn’t it a bit absurd to wish
someone good health with alcohol?” was met with objections from alcohol
producers.
The wine industry lobby wrote to
Macron complaining about the campaign, saying it did not depict excess
drinking but showed friendly, family moments and gave no guidelines on
safe consumption. The advert was not run again.
Anti-addiction campaigners have said the
government is too quick to act on alcohol industry views, and addiction
charities also said the government had shied away from hard-hitting
alcohol campaigns around the Rugby World Cup.
Bernard
Basset, the head of the addiction charity Association Addictions
France, said French politicians were out of step with the public. “Dry
January is seen in an increasingly positive way … The political class
has not understood that public opinion wants change.”
Aurélien Rousseau, who was health minister before resigning
just before Christmas over an immigration law, told BFMTV that he
personally be sober in January and had started already in December.
But asked whether the state would back dry
January, he said: “I’m very wary of … the government launching a
campaign telling people how to live for a month.” He said the government
would campaign on alcohol in 2024, targeting young people and pregnant
women.
Krystel Lepresle, of Vin et Société,
which represents the French wine industry, said it did not seem
necessary for the state to actively back an alcohol-free month in
France, because 90% of French people drank under the recommended limit
of 10 glasses a week, and alcohol consumption had dropped by 60% in 60
years.
She said French people managed “to reconcile the pleasure of consumption with moderation”.
