New Latvian alcohol consumption culture requires restrictive

  • 2000-05-25
  • By Anna Pridanova
RIGA - Alcohol consumption and the number of deaths directly or
indirectly connected to alcohol use rose significantly in Latvia during
the years of transition. This development requires strict state
policies and monitoring of alcohol accessibility, said Aija Pelne, the
deputy director of the state Drug Abuse center.

But the matter of adopting new policies is to be overviewed in a
broader context. Though alcohol causes societal problems, it also
brings in money. While there is a budget deficit, the significant
revenues alcohol production brings to the state budget are welcome. At
the moment, the visible outcome of the Latvian alcohol producers'
competition in the free market is cuts in production.

Alcohol production, like wood working industries, successfully dealt
with the hardships of transition and maintained viability.

"There are significant incomes from alcohol production and consumption
for Latvia. While only 0.5 percent of all working Latvians are employed
in this sector, their contribution to the state budget is 10 times
bigger than that of average employees. In 1998 all taxes paid from this
branch comprised 65 million lats, accounting for 5 percent of the state
budget," said Peteris Gulans, a professor at the Institute of Economics
at the Latvian Academy of Science.

Still there are other problems involved and demanding scrutiny, making
the question of evening up the negative and positive sides of alcohol
consumption a social and not a technical matter, said Gulans.

"After the break up of communism, the general decline in the regulatory
structures in the economics sector led to the decrease or lack of
control on alcohol production and distribution in the state," said
Gabriel Romanus, president of the Alcohol Retail monopoly in Sweden,
said at a seminar in Riga on May 12.

To reduce alcoholism and improve medical service, the state program was
launched. This year only the Drug Abuse Center got approximately
160,000 lats ($270,000)for the Alcoholism Prevention and initial stage
Alcoholism Detection programs.

Still, the registered consumption of alcohol was very high - 8.57
liters of pure alcohol per person over age 15. The share of the strong
alcohol consumed is 61 percent in 1999 with the positive tendency to
decline.

The rate of morbidity with alcoholism and alcohol psychosis, both
rising contantly in Latvia, illustrates at best the trends in alcohol
use.

Last year almost half those with alcohol psychosis received medical
observation for the first time.

"This means that people started to realize the danger of this
addiction. They trust our doctors and want to abstain from drinking,"
said Pelne.

What about legal means?

The laws regarding alcohol distribution in Latvia concerns two
restrictions. First, they prohibit alcohol sales, except beer, to
people under the age of 18. Second, they restrict advertizing of strong
alcohol and allow only advertisements of wines and beer, with certain
requirements on the context in which drinking is shown.

"From the economic point of view, maybe, they are all necessary means
for legal control. But from the view of consumers' health - no. We lack
the restrictions many European countries have," said Pelne. "It is not
prohibited to sell alcohol beverages at the gas stations. There are no
time limits on the retail trade, and selling beer to young people is
allowed. Besides, we lack proper control. I'm sure any 16 year old
person can get strong drink if he or she wants.

"I wonder, if there were any cases of illegal sale detected," she said.
Good guess - there were no such cases registered.

Before the Alcohol Circulation Law was adopted in 1998, there were more
restrictions on alcohol retail.

"The municipal governments were allowed to set their own hours for
alcohol retail. After the law was adopted they lost this discretion.
Therefore, what the Olaine, Jelgava and Valmiera municipalities do,
limiting night time alcohol sales, is breaking the law," said Pelne.

The new alcohol consumption culture, developed after transition in
Latvia, hinders prevention of alcoholism.

"People do not drink alcohol only marking some particular event, as
they did earlier. Drinking wine, beer and even strong alcohol beverages
became an everyday practice," said Gulans. "The longer drinking
traditions is what disables western legal mechanisms adopted here to
work and show good results.

"There is one thing that surprises me. Excise tax is imposed on beer as
on all other alcohol beverages. But the Alcohol Circulation law, that
prohibits advertising alcohol, states that this law is not applied to
beer," said Gulans.

"As a result, we see Aldaris [beer] ads posted on the streets. But in
this law it says you cannot advertise the drinking process itself," he
said. "And while the drinking is promoted, we see Gavrilovs [the
president of Aldaris] receiving the "Ci-cero" prize for successful
advertising campaigns."

"You can't do much by only formal means. People must be interested in
changing the status quo. But judging by the situation at the Riga
Central Market, there are not many who want to change things. The
police and the smugglers live quite peacefully together," said Raita
Karnite, the head of the Institute of Economics at the Latvian Academy
of Science.

The alcohol excise tax is set in the lats ratio. For instance, the duty
on 100 liters of spirit on sale is 550 lats. High prices help the black
market to flourish.

"On Riga's central market you can get a liter bottle of spirit for
only 2.5 lats, but the quality is questionable," said Gulans.

"There are both economic and legal bases for contraband," said Gulans.
"The punishment for smuggling and control over its implementation does
not equal the economic benefit from illegal alcohol retail."

Today illegal alcohol retail is punished with up to 150 lats fine.

"On the other hand, you can't cut consumption only by raising excise
tax. The illegal alcohol consumption will increase immediately, and the
number of negative consequences as well," said Karnite.

"The state policy will not reduce the amount of consumed alcohol, but
probably its structure. Thus, in stiffer competition, only getting low
quality products out of the market is very welcome," said Henriks
Danusevics, the head of the Traders' Association.

Earthly paradise?

The Valmiera city example is one getting a lot of attention and
critique from other Latvian cities, where the problem is urgent, and
critique from the Trader's Association, said Maris Kucinskis, head of
the Valmiera municipal government.

Since February, retail of any alcoholic beverages from 12 midnight
until 7 a.m has been restricted. The three month spell between making
the decision and starting restrictions was to allow time to implement
the restrictions and penalties on sales to minors, said Kucinskis.

"The idea came from the school's director. The reason was not only
students' free access to the alcohol, but the appalling alcohol use
trends in general," said Kucinskis. "What people did hanging out at the
center's club was buying and drinking alcohol outside, and only dancing
inside. Now they can't do it anymore."

Kucinskis claims public support for this radical action. Pointing to
the positive outcomes of this policy and saying that the illegal
alcohol retail is under control is another challenge for the Valmiera
region community. The amount of alcohol sold outside Valmiera borders
rose during the three months of "sobering time." It takes only 10
minutes to drive outside the town's borders.

Danusevics stands against time restrictions on alcohol retail.

"We have seen no benefit. What did it resolve? Young people can get
alcohol anyway," he said. "We made a survey in Kekava, where the time
limits were set two month ago. In a very absurd way, with these
restriction, it is always possible to buy alcohol at the town's gas
station."