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Through recent measures, the Armenian government has been trying to tackle tobacco addiction. No more cigarettes in bars and restaurants
On January 1 of this year, some important provisions relating to the law "On the reduction and prevention of damage to health caused by the use of tobacco products and their substitutes" adopted in 2020 came into force in Armenia.
According to these provisions, the public display of any tobacco-related product - such as traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, liquid-based nicotine products (vapes) - is prohibited both through electronic distributors in points of sale and in public catering establishments.
Even commercial establishments intended for their sale are forbidden to place these products or their brands and symbols - including their empty or oversized boxes - in places visible to the consumer.
Under the same law, a ban on the use of all types of tobacco products both inside and outside restaurants, bars, other food outlets, hotels, shopping centres, and other indoor workplaces came into force on March 15.
According to the authors of the law, the full application of these provisions over time will significantly reduce tobacco consumption in Armenia, improving the health of the population.
According to a joint report by the UN, the Ministry of Health, and some international organisations, around 5,500 deaths from smoking-related diseases are registered in Armenia every year. According to the same report, more than a quarter of the population - 28%, aged 18 to 69 in Armenia - uses any type of tobacco (the EU average for 2019 was 18.4% of the population aged 15 and over).
Raising the price
To reduce the number of smokers, a price increase had already been arranged but - as the statistics later showed - in vain.
In fact, in the period 2012-2016, the price of cigarettes increased by about 18%, but in the same period the number of male smokers increased by 5%, from 51% to 56%, and the number of women smokers doubled from 1.5% to 3%. In the first six months of 2017, 2.3 billion cigarettes were available on the Armenian market, half of which were produced in Armenia and half were imported.
Also relative to 2017, the data of the National Statistical Institute of Armenia show that in the first half of the year the volume of sales of cigarettes produced in Armenia alone was 14.3 billion dram, equivalent to 8.5 million Euros.
Major new restrictions?
Experts agree that these new restrictions will be successful in tackling tobacco consumption among Armenian citizens.
Mariam Mnatsakanyan, head of the Public Health Department of the Armenian Ministry of Health, told reporters that the Ministry's goal is not only to induce current smokers to quit, but also not to have new smokers, so that new generations do not suffer the damage of addiction to tobacco.
Immediately after the law was passed, the government informed the owners of bars and restaurants about the changes, in order to enable them to prepare before its entry into force.
The drafters of the law stressed that they have studied the international experience and, on this basis, argue that after the application of similar laws in other countries the number of customers has actually increased, as people can stay longer and places become more family-friendly.
Public health specialist Davit Melik-Nubaryan welcomes the adoption of the law, noting that there are similar restrictions in Russia and in the countries of the European Union and they are particularly effective: "It is very important to ensure that teenagers and young people do not smoke and, secondly, to help people who already smoke to quit". He then stressed how important it would be to drastically increase the prices of cigarettes. "The significant increase in prices is the most effective tool in the fight against tobacco. Cigarette prices are too low in Armenia”.
However, expert advice is not universally accepted by all consumers. People who like to enjoy a cup of coffee with a cigarette at the bar are complaining of being deprived of their favorite habit: "The whole world talks about the rights of non-smokers, special laws are adopted to ban us from smoking here and there, and who will protect the interests of us smokers, given that we are also hindered by non-smokers?". This is how Samvel, a businessman from Yerevan who no longer wants to go to public places because of the new law, is only partly joking. “I can neither eat nor drink coffee without a cigarette. I don't feel complete. I feel healthy when I smoke”.
Similar complaints are also expressed by some entrepreneurs, who argue that it is difficult to tell a customer that smoking is not allowed.
Complaints of this kind are widespread. However, industry specialists are confident that this is a transitional phase and that over time this phase will also pass, because the law is exclusively for the health of citizens.
