E-Malt.com News article: Sweden: Swedish alcohol policy fails to lower abusive drinking

The restrictive Swedish alcohol policy with high prices and taxes for alcohol has failed to meet the claimed objective of reducing both overall alcohol consumption and excessive drinking patterns, a new report commissioned by The Brewers of Europe illustrated on September 8th.

According to the report conducted by the Swedish Retail Institute (HUI), the current restrictive Swedish alcohol policy has resulted in numerous shortcomings and among the key findings have been the following.

The Swedish alcohol policy generates, via the high alcohol taxes, significant assets for the Swedish public treasury, although high taxes are obviously generated only by products purchased legally in Sweden.

As an instrument for keeping alcohol consumption low, the trends in recent years show that it has not succeeded.

Today’s situation is far from the objectives that the Swedish alcohol policy is aiming to achieve

Imports are essentially free and huge quantities of imported alcohol are resold in the illegal trade.

This, in combination with the fact that the availability of alcohol to young people is greater than ever before and criminal organisations have gained a hold on alcohol distribution makes the situation untenable.

To say that the Swedish authorities have lost control over a large part of the alcohol trade is, thus, hardly an exaggeration.

Commenting on the publication of the report today in Brussels, The Brewers of Europe Secretary General Rodolphe de Looz-Corswarem stated, “The findings by HUI on the approach adopted by Sweden show that it has often resulted in a black market being created where huge quantities of imported alcohol are resold for far below the normal Swedish market price. HUI also conclude that the Swedish authorities have basically lost control over a large part of the alcohol trade and that this, in combination with the fact that the availability of alcohol to young people in Sweden is greater than ever before, makes the situation and policy questionable.”

Rodolphe de Looz-Corswarem concluded, “Interestingly enough, the very significant increase in overall alcohol consumption in Sweden over the last 15 years, i.e. up 30%, has not lead to the same extent to negative health effects as claimed by proponents of the ‘lower consumption equals lower-risk theory.’ This to us in the brewing sector proves again that lowering overall consumption as a means to reducing harm is not a sustainable strategy.”


11 September, 2009