The fifth edition of Dry January has just begun, at the initiative of around sixty organizations but without official support from the State. A choice that challenges the alcohol lobbies.
“Dry January”, still without state support. This “challenge” which invites everyone not to drink alcohol for a month at the initiative of around sixty organizations was launched for the fifth consecutive year in France. Inspired by the same principle as No Tobacco Month, organized in November, it is, unlike the latter, not officially supported by the State. A situation regretted every year by part of the health world.
Public Health France had considered joining in 2020 but had given up, a choice seen as a renunciation in the face of the alcohol lobby, especially since President Emmanuel Macron is regularly accused of complacency with the wine industry. “We expressed our incomprehension to the president. If the government strategy is to move towards a total cessation of alcohol, it is incompatible with the economic health of France”, assumed Krystel Lepresle, general delegate of the lobby Wine and society, interviewed by BFMTV. Indeed, wine production in France represents nearly 12 billion euros per year with nearly 9 billion euros of bottles sold abroad.
The former Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, who has since resigned over disagreements on the immigration law, had confided his skepticism about the fact that the State would say “how to live for a month”. However, he had refuted any intervention from wine lobbies. “I have never encountered an alcohol lobby personally,” he assured.
“We are not going to tell people not to drink, it is not in our culture to do without wine or beer. But we feel that the times are no longer to say that we can drink a bottle every day,” assured a ministerial collaborator to the news channel. Alcohol consumption is directly or indirectly responsible for more than sixty diseases (cancers, cardiovascular, digestive, mental illnesses, etc.). It is the leading cause of hospitalization and the second cause of avoidable mortality in France (after tobacco) with around 45,000 deaths per year.
