Precisely. The root of the problem is the social acceptance of being totally hammered in public and behaving like an idiot. That's why it's pathetic and sad that they try to change it by making buying alcohol more complicated and annoying. No, that will just encourage binge drinking even more if anything. It just paints an aura of "forbidden fruit" around alcohol and that is a completely wrong direction to go.
I very much disagree with this view. If alcohol is easy to get anywhere and anytime, it doesn't give a message that it's acceptable to drink until falling in the ditches. No, quite the opposite: if a bottle of beer or wine is cheap and can be bought easily while doing your other shopping, it makes it a normal, everyday thing. A small pleasure of life as it should be.
In Finland, we've had tight regulations and super high alcohol tax for a long time, but alcoholism and alcohol related problems have actually increased during the last 30 years. In Germany, they reduced those taxes and for example beer doesn't have any tax at all. You go to a Lidl in Germany and beer is cheaper than lemonade, literally. But how about alcohol consumption? It went down in that time period! In Southern Europe alcohol is also really cheap, especially wine. Cheap table wine is cheaper than most juices. Yet you don't see many drunks in public at all.
I just don't get how the conclusion Finnish bureaucrats and politicians make is: we have alcohol problem, we need more rules, regulations and even more expensive prices than now. It doesn't make any sense! Look at the damn facts and picture they paint! It only makes sense if you believe in some mystical race theory that Finns are pathologically unable to handle the drink, but I find it absurd and there is no evidence to support it. It is a social and cultural issue, and restricting the availability of products that should be a natural part of everyday culture is very counterproductive. Not to mention it really pisses me off for having to suffer the consequently absurd prices and difficulties to get my craft beer because of those bumbling idiots we have in power.
The bolded part is the one that I have a problem with. It shouldn't be a part of everyday culture. Most people enjoy having a drink every now and then and that's okey, I drink after a sauna and take some glasses of wine on Friday evenings. But when it becomes acceptable to drink everyday, I'd say that's a step in the wrong direction. I admit there especially with youth the forbidden fruit argument might hold some value, but that'd only be true if alcholo was completely outlawed. Currently it is still pretty easy to get, thus lessening its mystique.
And apparently we've seen different statistics, I've in turn seen studies which support the measures taken to restrict alcohol usage and have come to the conclusion that they have lessened consumption. The latest report I've seen is that in the past 10 years there's been two different trends. One is that general consumption has lessened. But this is ofset by the face that apparently women have started drinking more, thus not allowing the general consumption levels to drop as much. Before women didn't drink as much as men, but when compared to 10 years ago men are drinking less now and women are drinking more. The current theory is that once the amount of alcohol consumed by women reaches the same level or close to as men, it'll too start dropping as the drinking culture changes.
Another change has been in what we drink. Before it was a lot more hard liquor, >22% stuff. Now we've moved on to lesser alcholic drinks. Beer consumption has increased, as has cider and long drinks. All in all, I feel like the current trend is good and that the restrictions work. Of course I'm quoting statistics without a source, so I could be talking from my arse, but I guess that's a risk on an internet forum.
Also, I've lived in a middle European country for 5 years and honestly, there were more drunks there then in Finland. Be that due to a smaller alcohol tax or something else, I don't know, but I don't think there's any proof that by lessening alcohol tax and taking away sales restrictions, you decrease consumption and improve the culture. Germany has the benefit that the culture there is more mild alcohol focused then in Finland. They drink beer instead of vodka. And that's a direction Finland is heading imo, which is good. And part of that culture change is created by the said restrictions and increase in alcohol tax.
