Finland: Increases in Alcohol Availability and Consumption

Abstract

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.

Europe. An Analysis of Changes in the Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages: The Interaction Among Consumption, Related Harms, Contextual Factors and Alcoholic Beverage Control Policies

“…The study has produced a series of country outcome reports, based upon the last five decades, that have been described elsewhere (AMPHORA, 2013, Part 2; Allamani, Voller, et al, 2014;Cogordan, Guillemont, & Kreft-Jais, 2014;Eisenbach-Stangl, 2014;Elekes, 2014;Gual & Matrai, 2014;Knibbe, Derickx, Allamani, & Massini, 2014;Lindeman et al, 2014;Plant, Allamani, Pepe, & Massini, 2014;Świ atkiewicz, Wieczorek, & Allamani, 2014). This paper is based, mainly, on a second level analysis of the AMPHORA data that were obtained for each country.…”

“…However, although they are often shown to be effective in well-defined experimental contexts of observation, needed generalizable evidence is frequently missing at the macro country level. Among the latter, the introduction of permissive policy measures in 1969 in Finland, such as the lowering of the off-premise age limit from age 21 to 20 years for buying alcoholic beverages with higher levels of alcohol, and from age 21 to age 18 for buying milder alcoholic beverages, as well as the right for grocery stores and cafés to sell medium beers caused 2 a consumption jump of 46% (Lindeman,Österberg, & Karlsson, 2014). Further, the introduction of restrictive policies in Slovenia (a 2003 law of minimum drinking age of 18 for purchasing alcohol, as well as hour limitations of off and on premises sales of alcoholic beverages) and in Russia (a 2006 regulation on alcoholic beverage production and the ban of sales in places of large public gatherings of alcoholic beverages with more than 15% ethanol) was associated with a reduction in male suicides in their respective countries by 10% and 9% (Pridemore & Snowden, 2009;Pridemore, Chamlin, & Andreev, 2013).…”

Substance use, affective symptoms, and suicidal ideation among Russian, Somali, and Kurdish migrants in Finland

“…For example, the prohibition of alcohol and other psychoactive substance use in the Muslim holy book, the Quran, is likely to influence substance use habits in Northern Africa and in the Middle East, where the population is predominantly Muslim (AlMarri & Oei, 2009;Baasher, 1981;Hafeiz, 1995). In contrast, in the Finnish drinking culture, intoxication by alcohol is relatively accepted, and gender differences in alcohol use have decreased in the last few decades (Lindeman et al, 2014;Ma¨kela¨et al, 2012). These cultural factors are likely to contribute to the marked differences in estimated prevalence rates of alcohol use between Western Europe, on the one hand, and North Africa and the Middle East, on the other (Shield et al, 2013).…”