King Alcohol Takes A Hit; Alcohol Laws Tightened In Finland

The Finnish Government tightened the Alcohol Laws in Finland on Wednesday (Feb 02, 2007). The focus of the new bill is on demanding visible warning labels on all alcoholic bottles and cans, much like the inefficient warning labels which decorate our cigarette packs. But that's not all. The new alcohol bill, which passed 104-71 in the Parliament, calls for the following:

-Warning labels on all containers of alcohol (bottles and cans, every alcoholic drink over 2.8% ABV), stating the imminent health risks and the possibility of damage to the embryo resulting from consumption of alcohol.
-Limiting of advertisement of alcohol on television and in movies.
-Banning all advertisement of alcohol on television between the hours of 7am and 9pm.
-Banning advertisement of alcohol during all movies suitable for under 18yr olds on television at all times of the day.
-Banning advertisement of discount prices of alcohol outside supermarkets.
-Banning advertisement of Happy Hour sales outside bars, restaurants and clubs.
-Banning of sales of alcohol at supermarkets between 9pm and 9am.
-Regulating the pricing of alcohol when bought in bulk.

The MPs aren't really convinced that the warning labels will have much effect, which kinda makes that part of the law somewhat redundant. The labels will be pretty much the exact same as are on packs of cigarettes in Finland right now, which has hap little or no effect on the numbers of smokers in Finland since they first arrived on the cigarette packs. A member of the Green Party noted that the only meaningful way the labels could reduce the consumption of alcohol would be if they read "Did you notice that the tax on this bottle has increased by 50 per cent? Watch your wallet!" Compared to the chilly response to the warning labels, the Government's plan on banning all bulk discounts on alcohol purchases received fairly unanimous approval. (Unanimous in parliament, but did anyone ask the populace?)

The banning of alcohol advertisement is really a continuation of what's already in effect, as advertisement of strong alcohol (above 22% ABV) has been completely banned in Finland for a while now. What this new addition means is that mild alcoholic drinks can only be advertised during late evenings and at night on television, in order to protect youths from exposure to alcohol. (Youths, who frequently stay up in front of the television way past 9pm...) Shame really, because Finnish TV commercials suck, as a rule, with beer and cider commercials usually being an exception to the rule. (Note: The Christian Democratic Party wanted to ban ALL advertisement of alcohol)

The banning of sales of alcohol at supermarkets between 9pm and 9am is not really anything new. They've just pushed the starting time ahead by a few hours, as it used to be that one could buy morning beer at 7am, as soon as most stores opened their doors.

The last part of the new law is the most important one, and the one which most people will complain about. Regulating the pricing of alcohol when bought in bulk. Bulk refers to the sale of 6-packs and 12-packs of bottled beer at stores, as well as similar bulk items of canned beer and cider. A couple of years ago the 6-pack and the 12-pack took over the position of the packet of coffee as the product of choice to lure in customers. (Finns still drink more coffee than any other nation in the world, some 11.2kgs per person annually. For comparison, Italians drink 5.4kgs, and the Japanese drink some 3.3kgs of coffee per person annually.) Due to this, the price of beer (in bulk) in supermarkets has declined rapidly in recent years, hitting as low as 6.40euros for the 12-pack. (For comparison, one bottle of beer bought separately costs some 1.25euros right now, equaling 15euros for 12 of them.) Breweries have stated that in order to make a profit off the sale of 12-packs, they should be priced at no less than 10euros. Breweries foresee an imminent price increase in the prices of 12-packs due to this new law, which is quite a redundant statement. One worry (and a good one at that too, especially in this country) is that the 12-packs end up in the possession of young drinkers (underage kids) who are likely to consume the entire contents of the 12-pack (typically outdoors, even when the thermometer hits -25 degrees Celsius) because there's no going home with alcohol.

The banning of bulk sales also applies to the sale of bottles of wine in restaurants, bars and clubs. Typically, a bottle of wine can be purchased cheaper than the same amount of wine when bought in glasses of 12cl or 24cl. No more, as now the bottle must cost the exact same as the corresponding amount of wine would in glasses.

According to several studies (which a lot of Finns are peculiarly proud of), the Finns drink to get intoxicated more than any other nation in the world. Whereas most countries have a drinking culture which involves use of alcohol in moderation in many parts of the daily schedule and social events, the Finns, who drink on less occasions, when they do, it's with a clear goal in mid; getting really wasted. Finnish youths start drinking at a very early age, typically between 12 and 15 as I've witnessed myself, with generally girls starting slightly earlier than boys.

Consider it a rule. Finns love to drink. many of the secular and traditional holiday celebrations in Finland are very fluid in nature. The two holidays on which Finns LOVE to drink are Vappu (last day of April, regardless of the day of the week, because the next day is a public holiday (read: national hangover day), and Juhannus (midsummer's eve, Friday 20something in June, always a Friday). These are the two worst days for tourists to come to Finland on vacation. On Vappu, EVERYBODY looses their mind and gets completely wasted, acting as stupid as they really can. On Juhannus, Helsinki and all other metropolitan areas are practically deserted of people, as everyone has retreated to the countryside to, well, drink insane amounts of alcohol, going as far in some cases as to take the boat out on the lake or the sea and drown, or manage to burn your cottage down to the ground. The student culture in universities and polytechnics consists of many, many alcohol-related extracurricular activities. Think American universities and their alcohol-related parties. Finnish higher education parties are school wide, an actual part of the schedule. (Of course, the schools don't endorse these parties, but they allow them to take place, and allow for gaps in the school schedule for them to take place.)

A part of the Finnish drinking culture is getting somewhat wasted before one heads out the the bars and clubs and a weekend night. This usually takes place at someone's house, or at a bar that has Happy Hour and cheap drinks. (A lot of bars have Happy hour from 6pm to 9pm, and a lot of clubs have Happy Hour from 9pm to 11pm). Club and bar owners and staff have noted that since the Finnish Government lowered the tax on alcohol in early 2004 (which only really affected the prices of alcohol in stores, not in bars and clubs), the amount of people getting some drink in the their system before heading out has increased. And not just the amount of people who do this, but also the amount of drink they consume prior to heading out on the town.

Finland is a traditional beer nation. The Finnish folklore, Kalevala, contains instructions of making beer within it's prose and poetry. During the Swedish Occupation of Finland, the Finnish Government paid the nations taxes in beer, and soldiers at the time received a salary of beer. Unfortunately, this practice has fallen out of use. Finnish beer was considered the best in the Kingdom of Sweden during the occupation, and ask any Finn, it's still better than anything the Swedes have attempted to brew.

Although Finland, per capita, consumed the least alcohol in Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century, a prohibition was imposed upon the populace from 1919 to 1932. The end of the prohibition came with the regulation of all alcohol under a single State institution, Alko. The end of prohibition came, not because of changes in tolerance to alcohol culture, but to bring an end to the smuggling if alcohol, which was thriving from day one of the prohibition.

Since 1932, mild alcoholic drinks, such as beer, cider, and long drinks, have also moved to the supermarket shelves and kiosks. All wine and spirits are still to this day only available in Alko, as well as restaurants, bars and clubs (but only for consumption within the premises, naturally). it's worth noting that this didn't occur until 1969. There's been talk of allowing for the sale of wines in supermarkets, but with the passing of this new law, that seems very unlikely to take place in the coming years.

Alcohol is now the leading killer of Finnish adults, with consumption reaching an all-time high last year, when Finns drank the equivalent of 55.2 million liters (14.5 million gallons) of pure grain alcohol — a 14 percent increase from 2003. Talking percentages, since 2003, the cost of treating alcohol-related illnesses has grown by 14 percent, peaking at $1.1 billion last year. See a pattern evolving? Here's a bit of statistical data to support the last few sentences.
In 2003, the top two leading causes of death for men in Finland between the ages of 15 and 64 were 1.) Coronary Heart Disease (1356 deaths, 18,5% of the total) 2.) Alcohol-Related (1016 deaths, 13,8% of the total). For women between the ages of 15 and 64, the two leading causes of death were 1.) Breast Cancer (325 deaths, 10,6% of the total) 2.) Alcohol-Related (267 deaths, 8,7% of the total).
In 2005, the top two leading causes of death for men were 1.) Alcohol-Related (1309 deaths, 17,1 of the total) 2.) Coronary Heart Disease (1268 deaths, 16,6% of the total), and for women 1.) Breast Cancer (355 deaths, 10,7% of the total) 2.) Alcohol-Related (354 deaths, 10,6% of the total). Out of a population of some 5.3 million people, 12% of Finns are absolutists, and 5-10% are heavy users of alcohol. In addition, a third of all suicides in Finland are committed whilst drunk.

Beer has never really been considered strictly alcohol in Finland, but rather a grocery item. Us Finns have a special love for the 12-pack, which we invented, and now cherish. The mäyräkoira (dachshund), as we generally call it, is a pillar of the drinking culture nowadays. Although all it is is 12 0.33litre bottles of beer, wrapped in cardboard, with a carrying handle. It's one of the top items which people steal/attempt to steal from grocery stores (something I've witnessed several times at work), and is also one of the, if not the, top selling item in grocery stores in Finland. It's the number one product with which stores try to lure in customers. Long story cut short, it's a special thing to us. 12 beers in a handy carry case for half the price. Well, that'll be no more, one this new law eventually goes into effect. The warning labels on the containers of alcoholic beverages will be coming within a year, but the other parts of the new law will come into effect as soon as this April. So, a month and a half to enjoy cheaper by the dozen. The labels won't have any effect; the advertisement ban will just make alcohol more of a "banned, so I must have" item for youths; the ban on Happy Hour advertisement outside licensed premises will annoy the consumer who'll now have to start barhopping or peeking into places to see where the cheap beer is; and the ban on bulk sales will annoy the living shit out of the consumer, atleast in the first months until we get used to it; and it'll change the way supermarkets battle between each other for the customers. Price of beer when sold individually at supermarkets might fall to an all time low to make up for the loss of the 12-pack.

I can't really decide if all this is a good thing or not. Sure, it's being done to control youth drinking and unhealthy binge drinking/alcoholism and cut the growing trend of alcohol-related deaths, as well as protect the young from the dangers of alcohol. But seriously, not much is likely to change. This is what I foresee happening:
The youths will still drink, they'll just drink less beer and cider and more hard liquor. As the drinking age in Finland is 18 for all alcohol under 22% ABV and 20 for anything above that (Everything else besides alcoholic beverages under 5% ABV can only be purchased at Alko), kids get their older brothers/sisters/parents friends etc to buy the alcohol for them, as is typically the case pretty much everywhere else in the world where the minimum drinking age is enforced. (In Finland, if a clerk at a supermarket or such sells an underage kid alcohol or cigarette without IDing them and is caught, they face a fine and possibly even lose their job. Same applies to selling to already grossly intoxicated individuals.)
Alcohol will become more and more the Forbidden Fruit. Youths, preteens, and so on will still be equally fascinated by alcohol, and will continue to start drinking at an early age.
Supermarkets, restaurants, bars and clubs might eventually see a slight drop in sales, but it'll be very short lived. Breweries, on the other hand, will be making more money.
Your average Joe, who drinks one to two 12-packs on Friday and Saturday evenings, will at first bitch and whine about the price increase (mostly likely to the person sitting at the cash register, who already gets enough of that shit everyday), and then will accept the fact that this is the way it'll be from now on.
Oh, and alcohol will remain the leading cause of death in Finland for years.

On paper, this new law might be a really good idea, with good intentions. In theory, um, not so. People will bitch and whine about it for a while and then calmly accept the fact. They're also talking of hiking up the tax on alcohol again, seeing as the tax deduction in 2004 was quite literally a miserable failure (it was done to control the flow of cheap alcohol from the former Soviet states, especially Estonia where Finns love to go on booze cruises. That and taking the cruise boat to Sweden to get absolutely wasted for two days in a row and purchasing cheap alcohol, namely beer). That'll be the next thing to whine about and then swallow the reality quietly and get on with life with a bottle in your hand. Hell, what can you say, us Finns love to drink...
UPDATED 5 MARCH 2007
The price of wine bottles will rise due to the new alcohol warning labels. The price of imported wine could rise by as much as 1 euro (a good, cheap wine goes for 6-8ish euros here), whilst local wines would see a mere 10 cent increase in price. Worst case scenario, the variety and availability of foreign wines (and beer) could diminish as expenses grow...

Sources:

Eduskunta hyväksyi varoitustarrat viina- ja olutpulloihin - HS.fi - Kotimaa (In Finnish)
FINLEX ® - Alkoholilainsäädäntö (In Finnish)
STTV Alkoholi (In Finnish)
Tiede.fi: Keskustelu - Alkoholilaki tiukentuu (In Finnish)
Tilastokeskus - Alkoholikuolemat lisääntyivät edelleen vuonna 2005 (In Finnish)
Tilastokeskus - Tilastouutisia (In Finnish)
Alkoholivero - Wikipedia (In Finnish)
Suomalainen alkoholikulttuuri - Wikipedia (In Finnish)
Booze Taking A Heavy Toll On Finland, Alcohol Now Leading Killer Of Finnish Adults; Consumption At All-Time High - CBS News (In English)
Helsingin Sanomat International Edition - No Plans To Regulate Price Of Beer In Licenced Premises (In English)
Alcohol becomes leading killer of Finns - Europe - International Herald Tribune (In English)
Helsingin Sanomat International Edition - Warning Labels Coming On Containers Of Alcoholic Beverages (In English)
Kansanterveyslaitos Alkoholi, huumeet ja muut päihteet (In Finnish)