It is World No Tobacco Day – a yearly celebration that “informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what the World Health Organization (WHO) is doing to fight against the use of tobacco.” This year’s theme is “Commit to quit”, and if you are a smoker you can find useful information on the WHO webpage devoted to ending smoking.
As promised in our previous blog, Tobacco Control in Georgia, here I continue to explore topics connected to the local economic and health impacts of smoking, and the corr...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
May
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Jun
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On May 17, 2017, the Georgian government adopted amendments to the Tobacco Control Law with 85 votes in favor, and only one against. This highly debated new regulation, which bans smoking in public places, was initiated by Parliament member Ms. Guguli Maghradze who just recently discussed the obesity problem in Georgia, which is caused partly by excess sugar consumption. Georgian public which is familiar with statements turning into law considered Ms. Maghradze’s statement as a prelude to enacting a sugar tax in Georgia. During the informal interv...
Recent Comments
Not only is sugar tax unfair but it also completely misses the goal its trying to reach. Producers will replace sugar with other, ... Read More
Friday, 15 June 2018 6:06 PM
Dear Quji, thank you for your comment. I agree with you that we have problems related to food quality and its control mechanisms. ... Read More
Tuesday, 19 June 2018 5:05 PM
Jan
23
We are what we eat – in the near future Georgians are likely to be reminded of this universal truth.
Soon the Georgian Parliament will be discussing a small but important change, which will affect something as significant and vital as bread, along with pasta, khachapuri and anything made with wheat flour. The Georgian legislators will be considering a law, according to which flour fortification will become mandatory in Georgia.
Mandatory food fortification is a contentious issue. The proponents of the law argue that this change is a great way to d...
Recent comment in this post
I agree with the author that flour fortification might correct some nutritional deficiencies which seem to be quite prevalent amon... Read More
Saturday, 30 January 2016 7:07 PM
Jun
19
According to a recent study, smoking marijuana for many years leads to a severe loss of intelligence: compared with people who did not consume cannabis, the IQ’s of smokers were lower by 13-38 points (Meier et al.: “Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife”, PNAS 109, 2012). Moreover, after a long time of consumption, cognitive abilities and memory do not recover when smoking marijuana is eventually given up.
Recently, decriminalization of marijuana became a hotly discussed topic in Georgia. The opi...
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