Taking5

Great story in Time magazine:

Medvedev's War on Russians' Love for Alcohol - TIME

nelco

Thanks for sharing that makes me feel a bit easier about us irish lol

matt88

Interesting article. I always proverbially nodded my hat to Russia everytime I drank vodka.

penny74

Vodka... yeah... brings back a few bad memories..Not to mention the things l don't remember...

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Terry Pratchett

johnnyreb

The culture here in the US has shifted to the point where alcohol abuse is no longer accepted. According to my buddy in the Ukraine, they're slowly starting down the same path.

justanothrdrunk

It's good that they're trying to change public opinion at all. But all they have to do is look at the US and its failed drug policy to find out that tougher laws, penalties, etc. don't work.

sfgirl

This isn't exactly true. The strategies they mention in the article are proven strategies that work at reducing consumption over populations— shifting sales to larger stores instead of smaller stores and kiosks with higher density and raising taxes and therefore price on alcohol. Enforcement of current drinking and driving along with underage serving laws also works. It seems it generally isn't an issue of imposing stricter sanctions but actually enforcing the ones we have. Things like sobriety checkpoints, even when announced in a community significantly reduce accidents and drunk driving. Environmental strategies are actually much more effective than the traditional strategies that try to target the specific drinkers through education. Limiting supply works better than reducing demand.

I have been taking a class on all this and actually have a final tonight that I have to read some of these really exciting studies for right now but would much rather be doing anything else.

Lenina

A friend of mine told me that in the '70's in the USSR there were vending machines on the streets where a shot of vodka could be purchased for a ruble. He also told me that the construction workers frequently fell off buildings due to drunkeness.

AA wasn't allowed as it was considered a religion. I hope a more enlightened stance will be taken now. I'd be interested to know what kind of recovery programs are used these days.

Love,

Lenina