The Health Ministry is staging the first national conference on alcohol policy, an event which will lay the groundwork for the national action plan on reducing alcohol consumption, at Brdo pri Kranju this week.
Opening the two-day event bringing together policy-makers and health and social workers from Slovenia and abroad, Health Minister Dorjan Marusic said he hoped that the debates would produce guidelines for the ministry to tap into when drafting the strategy.
The minister added that Slovenian needed to do more to curb the use of alcohol. Slovenians are among the world's biggest drinkers, consuming an average of 13 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.
Moreover, recent studies have shown that children in Slovenia first try alcohol at an average age of 9.48 years and that nine in ten primary school pupils have tried alcohol.
Marusic said that Slovenia had to improve these numbers "or else our future will not be bright". He pointed out that alcohol is the third most common cause of early death in Europe.
Ombudsman dr. Zdenka Cebasek - Travnik said Slovenia was lagging behind in its policies on alcohol. She believes that the state and media must do more to promote a healthy lifestyle.
