Germany’s drug commissioner says that nicotine represents the country’s biggest substance risk, according to a story at dw.com.
Marlene Mortler wants to ban outdoor advertising for cigarettes and tobacco, but some within her own party are opposed to her proposal.
When Mortler presented the official 2018 report on drugs and addiction in Germany, she did not stress opioids, cocaine, LSD or even cannabis.
Instead, she stressed that nicotine had remained the addictive drug that had cost the most lives in the country in recent years.
The numbers of people in Germany who smoke have declined by 30 percent since 2013, as they have elsewhere in Europe. But Mortler still singles out tobacco as an area where more needs to be done.
“We can’t relax when we have 120,000 tobacco-related deaths every year,” Mortler told reporters in Berlin. “120,000 deaths mean 120,000 cases of great suffering, and public costs of up to €100 billion ($115 billion).”
Germany is the only country in the EU that allows outdoor tobacco advertising.
Mortler, a member of the Bavarian conservative party, the CSU, succeeded in getting the Cabinet of the previous government under Chancellor Angela Merkel to back a ban on such advertising, only to see it torpedoed from within her own conservative bloc.
The German Government receives €14.4 billion a year from its 75 percent tax on tobacco products.
Advertising battle
