It seems that an increased level of awareness of alcohol-related issues among the general public created a more restrictive opinion climate on alcohol policy issues after the big alcohol excise duty decrease in 2004. The reverse seems to happen but in a lesser degree when alcohol excise duties has been increased after the year 2007.

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Aims This article studies trends and patterns of public opinion on alcohol policy in relation to changes in alcohol policy and total alcohol consumption in Finland during the last twenty years. Design We first study changes in alcohol policy and total alcohol consumption, and then review and analyse data from public opinions surveys. General trends in the alcohol-policy opinion climate are studied, as well as specific questions such as opinions regarding age limits, pricing of alcoholic beverages and sales place of different alcoholic beverages. Findings The Finnish alcohol policy arena has undergone large changes during the last two decades which can also be noted as a growth in the total consumption of alcoholic beverages and related harms. In congruence with higher consumption levels of alcohol, also the share of the population in favour of more restrictive alcohol policies has risen.

Introduction and Aims. This study has, for the first time, mapped the extent to which alcoholic beverage brands operating on the Swedish market follow national advertising regulations and industry self-regulating codes in their postings on social media. Design and Methods. All social media content posted on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by 52 brands operating in the Swedish market was gathered from three sample months in 2014, 2016 and 2017. A content analysis was performed.Results. An audit of the 1204 posts shows that the brands' social media content conforms rather well with the industry's own self-regulation codes. However, the studied beverage brands had alarmingly inadequate age-gates to social media accounts. Advertisements for alcoholic beverages must be clearly distinguishable from advertisements for non-alcoholic beverages, according to the Swedish Alcohol Act criteria. These criteria are fulfilled to a varying degree among the posts in the analysed data. Advertisements for non-alcoholic beverages give companies a greater leeway in terms of shape and content of the post through logotypes, settings and connotations. However, advertisements of non-alcoholic beverages continue to convey the brand connotations and image to consumers. Discussion and Conclusions. Regulating alcohol advertising in online milieus can be very difficult because of the complex mixture between quickly evolving techniques and the diverse nature of communication messages targeting consumers. Many countries, including Sweden, are now focusing on how to enforce effective policies. This short report strives to shed some light on the scope and content of commercial messages on Swedish social media platforms. [Lindeman M, Katainen A, Svensson J, Kauppila E, Hellman M. Compliance with regulations and codes of conduct at social media accounts of Swedish alcohol brands. Drug Alcohol Rev 2019;38:386-390]

This article briefly describes the changes that Finland has undergone during the 1960-2012 period with regards to societal changes, alcohol control policies, alcohol-related harms, and alcohol consumption, after which the findings of the analyses made by Allamani and his colleagues in the AMPHORA project are discussed. It seems that despite the changes in the alcohol field, the strong and comprehensive control policy measures still have a solid footing in the Finnish society. It is also evident that the policy changes implemented over the course of the last decades have affected the development of the total alcohol consumption to a large degree in both positive and negative directions, depending on the kind of measure implemented.