Prague, Nov 23 (CTK) – About 640,000 Czechs over 15 drink alcohol in a risky way and may be addicted to it, and another 540,000 drink in a way that harms them, being close to risk-drinking, according to a report on the use of drugs in 2015 submitted to the government yesterday.
There were 46,900 problem users of pervitin, heroin and other illegal drugs in the country last year, says the report, completed by the National monitoring centre for drugs and addictions.
About 12.5 percent of Czechs (19 percent of men and 6 percent of women) drink alcohol regularly or even daily. Seven percent are risk drinkers and 6 percent drink in a way harmful to them.
Almost 25 percent of Czechs (28 percent men and 19 percent of women) smoke daily.
“The figures represents some two million daily smokers and about one million of risk alcohol drinkers, including 640,000 high-risk drinkers,” the report says.
According to the latest European health research (EHIS), 35 percent of Czech men and 23 percent of women over 15 are smokers.
Twenty-eight percent of men and 16 percent of women smoke daily, which is 1.2 million and 720,000 smokers, respectively, the report says, citing EHIS.
Alcohol annually kills much more people than hard drugs.
According to the registry of autopsies, a total of 104 people died of overdosing in the Czech Republic last year. Out of them, 44 died of abusing illegal drugs and volatile substances and 60 of abusing medicines.
Alcohol fatally poisoned 133 people and it contributed to the death of another 682 in accidents, suicides etc.
According to the registry of deaths, 57 people died of overdosing last year and 342 died of alcohol poisoning.
The two registries’ figures differ due to their different methods of registration and assessment of the causes of deaths.
The number of injuries under the influence of alcohol has risen from 4,959 in 2002 to last year’s 7,384, which is from 2.7 to 3.5 percent of the total number of injuries registered in 2002 and 2015, respectively.
Alcohol played a role in 4,544 road accidents claiming a total of 62 lives.
The number of smokers and alcohol drinkers among schoolchildren dropped last year, the report says.
About 75 percent of the 16-year-olds who admitted drinking alcohol in the past month, did so in a restaurant, bar or a disco.
Checks showed that about a half of children’s attempts to buy alcohol and cigarettes in restaurants are successful. In corner shops, they are even 90-percent successful.
Last year, the government approved plans to fight alcohol drinking, smoking and gambling. It intends to ban smoking in restaurants, introduce compulsory deterring pictures on cigarette packagings, reduce the number of vendor places and impose sanctions on the owners of pubs where drunk children are found.
The goal of the measures is to gradually reduce the consumption of alcohol and tobacco and achieve a three-year delay in young people’s first experience with alcohol drinking.
