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Tag: Greece

  • Long-Standing Greek Tobacco Practice Now Criminal

    Long-Standing Greek Tobacco Practice Now Criminal

    Beginning today (July 1), Greece is implementing new restrictions to curb youth access to tobacco and alcohol, with Health Minister Adonis Georgiades announcing that the sale of tobacco products to minors will now carry criminal penalties. Under the new law, adults will be banned from sending minors to purchase cigarettes, a long-standing practice in the country.

    “We are making a very strict bill to protect our minors from both alcohol and tobacco,” Georgiades said. “The kiosk attendant, to give a packet of cigarettes to someone, must ask for identification and establish that they are an adult – otherwise they are criminally liable.”

    The new legislation, soon to be published in the Official Gazette, also includes a 16-gram cap on the nicotine levels in tobacco pouches. Some products were recently found to contain as much as 70 grams of nicotine.

  • Greece Wants to Break Minors from Buying Tobacco, Alcohol

    Greece Wants to Break Minors from Buying Tobacco, Alcohol

    In the 2024 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), 77% of Greek 16-year-olds said they could buy e-cigarettes without checks and 65% said the same for cigarettes and tobacco. Ninety-two percent said it was easy to buy alcohol, in a culture where it’s not uncommon for children to buy such products to bring home to their parents. The government, however, wants that to change. 

    Proposed legislation would require checking identification to make sure buyers are of legal age, including for products such as vapes and cannabis items, with fines up to €10,000 ($11,385) and possible business closure.

    The bill has a digital registry for sellers and creates a specialized unit in the national health agency to monitor product circulation. ESPAD data showed 37% of teens reported binge drinking and 52% used vapes. 

  • Greece Considering Flavor Ban

    Greece Considering Flavor Ban

    Euractiv is reporting that Greece is preparing a bill to ban all flavored alternative tobacco products, sparing only natural tobacco and mint. Athens has generally opposed both stricter rules for alternative tobacco products and calls to treat them like traditional cigarettes, but according to Euractiv the political case for tougher action is growing. The ban is part of a bill aiming to make it stricter for minors to access alcohol and tobacco products, following incidents of teenagers fainting in a nightclub after consuming excessive alcohol.

    The bill is in “final stages of internal consultation,” a source said, though it’s still unclear whether the flavor ban will survive in the final text. Legally, a total ban would need to be approved by the European Commission and could take up to six months.

    Analysts in Athens say that the bill is a step in the right direction, largely due to its broader crackdown on underage access to alcohol and tobacco products, however, some government officials outside the health ministry have questioned why the flavor ban is being included in a bill ostensibly focused on protecting minors.

    “A total ban doesn’t make sense as it also punishes adult consumers,” an industry source said. They explained that in other countries, such as the UK, flavored products remain on the market and are promoted as tools to help adult smokers quit traditional cigarettes.

    Meanwhile, the association of traders of vaping products warned in a letter to the government, seen by Euractiv, that a total ban would result in 400,000 vape users switching to the “uncontrollable” black market.

  • Greece Cracking Down on Sales to Minors

    Greece Cracking Down on Sales to Minors

    The Ministry of Health in Greece is introducing stricter regulations on alcohol sales to minors, as well as tighter controls on the sale and use of new tobacco and nicotine-based products, to include cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vaping substances, and synthetic nicotine items.

    A draft of the bill is being reviewed by the government today, in the wake of what is being called a serious and worrying trend of alcohol abuse by minors. The legal overhaul aims to protect minors from all harmful substances and improve enforcement mechanisms. 

    Many of the regulation changes center around where products can be sold, reinforced age verification at points of sale, and harsher penalties for retailers selling to minors.

    Further, the bill creates a new department within the National Public Health Organization specifically to monitor and enforce the revised laws on these substances.

  • Greece to Boost Penalties for Youth Vape Sales

    Greece to Boost Penalties for Youth Vape Sales

    Credit: Lefteris Papaulakis

    Greece is set to introduce a new bill in its Parliament that would impose stricter penalties for businesses supplying alcohol, electronic cigarettes, and vaping devices to minors in the government’s efforts to revamp alcohol laws in the country.

    This is a joint decision made by the ministries of Citizen Protection, Justice, and Health, and it comes after repeated incidents of selling alcohol to under-aged individuals.

    According to sources, violators who sell these harmful products to minors could be punished with imprisonment, financial fines, and other administrative penalties, including the immediate closure of the business involved, media reports.

    Ministerial officials report that past oversights have also been identified regarding the access minors have to these harmful products. Specifically, under the previous government, the number of police officers assigned to enforce the anti-smoking law, for example, had been drastically reduced, penalties had been minimized, and there was also a decision allowing for the use of alcohol by minors at private events.

    The Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis commented on the new law, “Everything is now becoming stricter for the protection of minors, with increased enforcement.”