As I’ve previously documented, Norwegians have a complicated relationship with alcohol. The state pursues a policy of making alcohol difficult to obtain and expensive, while citizens pursue a policy of going to grand efforts to obtain cheap alcohol and consume it in the most damaging way possible. There is an unspoken myth that in Norway, with its handsome and wholesome land and people, such substances are a naughty thing and nobody should have any need for them. This of course is completely counter to actual Norwegian habits. Thus there is the contradiction whereby people live quite happily with a state policy of temperance, showing little support for liberalisation, yet at the same time rate quite highly when it comes to drug consumption 1 and bingeing 2.
Avoid this local beer
State-sanctioned temperance is still in vogue here. On reading up on it a little 3, it appears that the policy is a relic from the temperance movement that swept the Protestant countries in the early 1900s. The small oddity is that Scandinavians didn’t actually drink a whole lot of alcohol around the time prohibition was introduced, nor do they today. Back then, the average Swede drank 5 litres of pure alcohol per year, the average Finn 1.5 litres, while the average Frenchman swilled an impressive 22 litres 3. Prohibition fits well with the Scandinavian culture of solidarity and social democracy. Drinking alcohol to excess lessens your ability to contribute to society and improve the lot of everyone, and people tend to more readily accept governments’ paternal “care”. Denmark now has most liberal policies of the Scandinavian countries, and unsurprisingly, vastly out-paces its Nordic cousins for pretty much anything you can drink, smoke, snort or inject. Yet other European countries that are even more liberal, such as the Netherlands, have quite low rates of consumption.
That significant traces of the temperance policy are still around in 2009 has been attributed to Scandinavians perhaps preferring quality over quantity: while they don’t drink a lot overall, they like to binge when they do. This can cause more health problems as well as other negative effects of alcohol consumption. For example, 80% of violent crime in Norway is linked to intoxication (Sweden is slightly higher at 86%). This is far beyond that experienced in Germany (24%) which consumes twice as much alcohol per capita than Norway (12.9 litres per person versus 5.8 litres 4). There seems to be an implicit – yet knowing – understanding that citizens have a certain … tendency … and would kindly request the government do its best to look after them and limit harming themselves or others.
“Karsk” is a classic Norwegian long-drink. Put a coin in the bottom of a cup and fill it up with bitter filter coffee until the coin disappears. Continue filling cup with moonshine until the coin reappears. Skål!
I am curious as to why Scandinavian countries are driven to such excess. My informal observations haven’t really led me anywhere and in my casual skimming of the literature I haven’t found a satisfactory answer (though some of the more interesting-looking papers are behind pay-walls, unfortunately). Any thoughts? I don’t mean to wag my finger at Norway for inebriation. Far from it. My home country has high levels of per capita consumption of alcohol and drugs, as well as bingeing. Rather than pretend that such matters don’t really happen however, Australian society is out and proud; undoubtedly pride and machismo has a large part to play in our over-consumption. The Australian pub is an institution, the lifeblood of many a town, and if you don’t drink, you are bloody-well un-Australian!
What I find fascinating about Norway is the contradiction between state policy and people’s desires and how this manifests in behaviour. This meditation on alcohol consumption is a preamble (and place-holder for statistics) to my next post detailing the prime showcase of Norwegian drinking behaviour: the round-trip ferry to Denmark.
1. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addition, (2009). Annual Report: The State of the Drug Problem in Europe.
- Norway has the third highest drug-induced mortality in Europe, highest amount of methamphetamine seized in Europe and third highest use of amphetamines in 2008. Below EU average for cocaine use, happily.
2. Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen e.V. (DHS) (2008). Binge Drinking and Europe. Hamm, Germany: DHS.
3. Kurzer, P. (2002). “Can Scandinavian member States play a leadership role in the EU? The case of alcohol control policy”, Scandinavian Studies, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.
4. Wikipedia. List of countries by alcohol consumption, retrieved 02.12.09.
Note this post is not a thorough examination of the literature or statistics.
