Dificuldades políticas, éticas e jurídicas na cria？？o e aplica？？o da legisla？？o sobre álcool e tabaco: contributo para o desenvolvimento da investiga？？o em Direito da Saúde Pública

introduction: the application of laws of public health in the area of health determinants related to lifestyles and behaviors, which include the fight against harmful use of alcohol and tobacco control, needs to be analyzed and discussed taking into account the very particular complexity of this reality, where it is not possible to decouple the action to be taken from the various social stakeholders involved. indeed, in these areas, the lobbying activities of industry and distribution and sales sectors, show the existence of competing interests with the policies of public health, interfering in the results of these and preventing their effectiveness. material and methods: taking as a background the above mentioned assumption, this article presents a brief reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the use of legal instruments in public health, taking as example the portuguese laws on alcohol and tobacco, for which situations of ambiguity and imprecision in its enforcement and a lack of effective monitoring and sanctioning of its non-compliance have put a stop to a effectiveness of the same legislation in practice. the article also shows recent foreign examples which illustrate the pitfalls that can arise even in public health laws with clear objectives to reduce the consumption of health hazardous substances and their potential harm. such is the case with u.s. law no. 111-31 of 22 june 2009 which gave the fda (food and drug administration) the power to control tobacco products and has been the aim of harsh criticism from public health authorities and academics. in this article, although affirming the undeniable power of the legislative instrument to change attitudes and behaviors we, express, however, some concerns respecting the fact that the law is still an unexplored and poorly evaluated instrument in the public health domain. to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the laws concerning public health is indeed as complex as the multidisciplinary sciences an