A month without drinking a drop of alcohol. For all the volunteers, the “Dry January” begins this Saturday, an operation which is still not entitled to state support, unlike similar campaigns against smoking.
“We have no government aid (and) we are still without means”, underlines to AFP the lawyer Claude Rambaud, vice-president of the federation of associations France Assos Santé, which oversees this campaign.
Launched for the third consecutive year in France, on the model of similar operations in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian world, the “Dry January” operates on a simple principle: do not drink alcohol during the entire month of January.
This is a good time to take a break, after holidays often marked by heavy alcohol consumption. But the goal is not only to rest your body, it is to realize for yourself what changes in a daily life without alcohol.
“The idea is to try to take this break, but the campaign is not at all judgmental: everyone can try to measure their relationship to alcohol during that month”, explains Ms. Rambaud, fearing however, a difficult context with the Covid-19 pandemic which continues in an anxiety-provoking atmosphere.
This type of campaign is proving more and more effective in the field of public health. Instead of emphasizing the risks represented by a substance – here alcohol – we stress the advantages of slowing down its consumption. Participants are also stimulated by a challenge that brings together many people at the same time.
“Many people who take this break then continue” to consume less alcohol, reports Ms. Rambaud, on the basis of studies carried out in Anglo-Saxon countries.
“It launches a momentum,” she insists.
It is the same principle as the “Tobacco-free month”, launched each year in the fall, with a small nuance: the Dry January does not aim to definitely encourage total abstinence.
But, in France, the reality is very different between the two operations. The “Tobacco-Free Month” has been supported for years by the State, via the Public Health France agency, while the “Dry January” is only the result of associations, admittedly joined by several municipalities such as that of Lyon .
– Not reserved for heavy drinkers –
“It has nothing to do with what is happening in the United Kingdom where they are extremely supported by the government”, regrets Ms. Rambaud.
The associations reproach the State for giving in to the alcohol lobbies, in the first place the wine growers, who raise the specter of a hygienic campaign unsuited to the French “art of living”.
On the side of Public Health France which, according to several sources, had almost embarked on the campaign for its first year in 2020 but had given up in extremis, the balancing act continues.
The agency, which depends on the Ministry of Health, does not hide its interest in the “Dry January”; it has carried out several surveys on its progress and its experience by the participants. But it keeps away from direct involvement.
Public Health France is “in support” of the organizers of Dry January, explained in the fall, its general manager Geneviève Chêne, emphasizing other campaigns of the agency against the risks associated with alcoholism.
These public operations are, however, more focused on the risks linked to behavior – aggressiveness, danger on the road – than those which directly affect the health of drinkers.
However, these health risks are often poorly understood, as evidenced by a frequent misunderstanding on the “Dry January”. The campaign does not only concern heavy drinkers because moderate but regular consumption also represents a health risk.
“For non-participants, the target of the operation is primarily dependent people or young consumers who do not control their consumption”, explains a study carried out by Public Health France from individual interviews, and published in December in the journal Alcoologie et Addictologie.
“They therefore do not feel concerned”, conclude the authors, believing that there would be everything to gain from even better publicizing the “Dry January”.