more world news. not as recent as the other two but still, pretty current

Los Angeles Times
December 3, 2000, Sunday, Home Edition

EU TRADE RULES COULD WATER DOWN SWEDEN'S TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

CAROL J. WILLIAMS, TIMES STAFF WRITER

STOCKHOLM-
Sweden's 150-year-old temperance movement has been so successful in
wresting this country from the Vodka Belt, people like to say that
more Swedes live from alcohol now than die from it.

With Europe's highest taxes on tipples, the welfare state's coffers
get an annual infusion of $ 1.3 billion from drink sales--and the
resulting high prices have depressed consumption and alcohol-related
deaths and illnesses to one of the lowest levels in the developed
world.

But those enviable achievements are now under assault in the name of
consumer harmony on the Continent. The European Union's trade
policies have forced Sweden to ease restrictions on alcohol imports,
which could drastically cut domestic revenue from state-monopoly
wine, beer and spirits sales unless the government agrees to lower
taxes to make purchases here competitive with neighboring countries.

The changes imposed by EU membership also coincide with an emerging
sentiment among the responsible-drinking majority in this nation of
8.9 million that it is their business--not the government's--how much
they consume in the safety and privacy of their homes.

"The voices speaking against the 'Big Brother' issue have become
stronger since we joined the Union," Bjoern Hibell, director of the
Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Narcotics, says of the
changing public attitudes since Sweden became an EU member in 1995.

Inspired by a history of massive alcohol abuse in the 19th century,
the Swedish government has long assumed the role of moral judge and
has used taxes and import restrictions to discourage Swedes from
drinking.

But Hibell and others charged with analyzing Swedish drinking
behavior contend that many Swedes are tolerant of the alcohol tax
bite because they recognize the hidden costs of health care for
abusers as well as lost labor efficiency and drinking's contribution
to violent crime.

"If you want to be an alcoholic, that's your business, of course. But
most people think alcohol problems are not just a problem for the
individual but for the whole society," says Bjoern Rydberg, spokesman
for the state-owned Systembolaget monopoly on alcohol sales and
distribution.

Officials are weighing an alcohol tax cut in the face of slumping
revenues in southern Sweden since July, when the new import quotas
kicked in and a bridge to Denmark opened, allowing consumers to save
mightily by doing their booze shopping abroad and taking advantage of
more liberal personal import volumes. Without tax relief, Swedes will
spend their liquor kroner elsewhere, depriving the country of income
that might be used to combat drinking's related health problems.

An Alcohol Action Plan submitted this fall to the Riksdag, Sweden's
parliament, puts off the divisive tax issue until spring but earmarks
about $ 45 million for local public awareness projects and self-help
groups for abusers.

Research across Europe, however, consistently shows that pricing
policies, monopoly control, a higher minimum drinking age and low
blood-alcohol driving limits are vastly more effective in reducing
consumption than information campaigns, says Sven-Olov Carlsson,
president of Sweden's chapter of the International Order of Good
Templars.

"The sad thing is that all the discussion now is about Sweden moving
toward the EU position, while it would make more sense for other
European countries to take steps toward Sweden," Carlsson says.

While that isn't in the cards, he predicts that EU enlargement to
include the heavy-drinking populations of Eastern Europe will force
the alliance to put public health concerns above those of trade and
agriculture now driving the drinking debate.

Carlsson recently traveled to Latvia, the tiny Baltic state that is
among the candidates for EU membership, where he was appalled to
discover that there are 40,000 shops authorized to sell alcohol for
the 2.3 million people, compared with 411 stores throughout Sweden,
which has four times Latvia's population.

The temperance leader also bemoans the mixed message that Sweden
sends abroad with the highly successful marketing and sales of
Absolut vodka--a product of the wholly state-owned Vin & Sprit
company that is forbidden to promote its flagship tipple in the
homeland.

Sweden's powerful temperance movement grew out of the enormous abuses
prevalent in the mid-19th century, when manual laborers like miners
and loggers were often paid in spirits.

Per capita consumption of liquor at that time was 46 liters a
year--about six times today's level in Sweden and three times that of
the Continent's heaviest drinkers, in Portugal, Luxembourg, France,
Ireland and Germany. Of 39 developed countries tracked by Swedish
researchers, the United States ranks 26th in per capita consumption,
with Sweden No. 31 and Turkey the most abstemious of those studied.

"Taxation has proved to be the most effective means of reducing
consumption, especially together with the monopoly sales system,"
says Gerd Knutsson, the Ministry of Health and Social Issues' chief
advisor on alcohol problems.

Sweden's blood-alcohol limit for drivers is also among the lowest in
the developed world at 0.02%--one-fourth the level allowed in
California. The low threshold for defining drunk driving, coupled
with staggering fines and risks of jailing, has been successful in
keeping alcohol-related traffic accidents the lowest in Europe,
Knutsson says.

One persistent problem cited by both proponents and opponents of
lower alcohol taxes is the Swedish predilection for binge drinking.
Only in the past 20 years has consumption of beer and wine been
rising to reflect a shift from total inebriation to social drinking.
Sales of the high-proof aquavit infusions for which Sweden is
renowned remain strong, and health researchers report that less than
10% of the population accounts for more than half the total alcohol
consumption.

"Particularly in rural areas, a lot of Swedes still drink to get
drunk, not to enhance food or to be social," says Hibell, whose
state-run institute forecasts an accelerated rise in what are already
growing consumption levels.

He notes that Sweden's steadily improving economy also contributes to
rising consumption because more money is available for luxuries like
wine and spirits, the prohibitive taxes notwithstanding.

"Alcohol is like any other commodity," he says. "The cheaper it is,
the more you can afford to buy."

The same bottle of whiskey selling for $ 11 in Germany retails in
Sweden for $ 25. Wine averages about twice the price here as
elsewhere in the EU, and beer costs about 40% more.

Since July, the more liberal EU import allowances permit Swedes
returning from trips abroad to bring back up to 20 liters of wine and
24 liters of beer, a twentyfold and twelvefold increase,
respectively. Beginning in 2004, the limit on spirits will also rise
tenfold, to 10 liters per trip, and the wine and beer allowances to
110 liters for each.

Not everyone will take full advantage of the relaxed import quotas,
observes Gunnar Agren, director of the National Institute of Public
Health. "For one thing, it would be very heavy and difficult for
anyone traveling without a car," he says of the 2004 quantities,
which allow travelers to bring in 2.6 gallons of hard liquor, 157
bottles of wine and 333 12-ounce cans of beer.

Researchers at Agren's institute predict a 10% increase in
consumption from the relaxed import allowances, with a simultaneous
loss of revenue from sales by the state liquor monopoly as Swedes
dodge the tax burden by buying more abroad.

"We think it's important to lower taxes before it becomes a habit
among Swedes to go to Denmark or Germany to buy their alcohol," warns
Systembolaget spokesman Rydberg. "This is a pity, because taxation is
the most effective way to bring down consumption, but it is no longer
possible without losing control over the whole system."

Per capita consumption of pure spirits by Swedes older than 15 is
about 8.2 liters per year, which compares favorably with the EU
average of 12 liters. But that will rise to 9 liters with the more
liberal import quotas and to as much as 11 liters if the Riksdag
decides to lower taxes to put Swedish prices at the Danish level,
Agren says, basing his prediction on the institute's extensive
consumer research.

While the import levels have eased to conform to EU standards, other
changes are being tested because of Swedish consumer demand. Until
earlier this year, the Systembolaget shops operated only Monday
through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but a few stores in major
cities now have Saturday shopping until 2 p.m. That extension is cast
as a one-year experiment, but authorities concede that it would be
difficult to rescind what is a convenience for the majority because a
small minority might show signs of further abuse.

The country does have a history of reversing policy in the face of
worsening problems, though. To encourage a shift away from drinking
hard liquor, the Swedish government in 1965 allowed grocery stores to
sell beer and lifted the tax on national brews. But that
liberalization was revoked 12 years later, when it became apparent
that underage Swedes were more readily able to obtain beer and were
increasingly showing up in traffic, health and crime statistics.

Despite a general trend toward loosening the state's chokehold on
drinkers, there is little public pressure for lifting a ban on all
alcohol advertising or even ending the state outlet monopoly that so
severely restricts retail sales.

"Much depends on how the questions are posed," says Carlsson of the
temperance movement. "If you ask people if they want lower taxes, of
course they will say yes. But if you ask them if what has been a
successful alcohol policy should be changed, with all the social and
health damage that implies, most Swedes would support the higher
taxes."

Copyright 2000 / Los Angeles Times
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