Ukraine may increase liability for selling alcohol and tobacco products to children

12 January 08:35

The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, has appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy with an initiative to increase responsibility for the sale of alcohol and tobacco products to children. The ombudsman himself announced this in Telegram, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

He drew attention to the fact that from January 1 to October 30, 2024, according to the National Police, 2,655 administrative reports were drawn up on the sale of alcohol and tobacco products to minors. According to the Ombudsman, this may indicate insufficient restrictions and the level of responsibility of sellers in this area.

“Thus, for the relevant actions, the seller can be fined 400-800 tax-free minimums, which is UAH 6,800-13,600. The current amounts of fines are disproportionate to the harm that the sale of these goods can cause to children’s health,” said Dmytro Lubinets and emphasized that “any desire to make money on children and harm their health requires proper responsibility.”

Therefore, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights proposes to amend the legislation on the sale of alcohol and tobacco products by establishing fines from 3000 to 15,000 tax-free minimums for the sale of these goods to children.

Another method of uncontrolled alcohol and tobacco sales requires attention

The All-Ukrainian Campaign “Smoke-Free Youth” and the NGO “Community of Active Youth” in partnership with the Center for Civic Representation “Life” recently conducted a study on the problem of remote (Internet) sales of tobacco and alcohol products to children without any restrictions.

The study found that 10 out of 10 supermarkets successfully delivered orders with the appropriate content without any age restrictions or passport checks. According to the activists, the experiment clearly confirms that Ukraine is massively violating the law on the sale of excisable goods to children by using the online ordering and delivery tool.

“With this study, we would like to draw the attention of MPs, the National Police and the Tax Service to the problem of children’s access to cigarettes and alcohol without any restrictions. Stores are deliberately using the online sales tool to increase their profits at the expense of the health of young people under 18,” said Kateryna Glushchenko, head of the NGO “Community of Active Youth” and representative of the Smoke-Free Youth campaign.

The psyche of adolescents is very vulnerable to the effects of nicotine and alcohol

Otto Stoyka, a doctor at the Kyiv City Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, emphasizes that consuming psychoactive substances such as nicotine and alcohol makes children more irritable, less attentive, and their memory deteriorates.

Also, according to the doctor, the balanced development of the brain is inhibited. Physical health also suffers due to the toxic effects of alcohol and tobacco on the liver, kidneys, and stomach. Nicotine speeds up the heart rate at rest, which overloads the cardiovascular system.

Василевич Сергій
Editor