Somebody put something in my drink

last updated 8 January 2015

Russia

Denis Davidov and Anna Ovyan

Russia is drinking itself to death, said Denis Davidov and Anna Ovyan in Moscow’s Novaya Gazeta. Vodka is our worst enemy—certainly “more deadly than any military foe” in recent memory. The Soviet army lost 14,000 men in the entire Afghan conflict (provided one believes official figures). Yet we lose three times that many—42,000 people—every year to alcohol abuse. The authorities are now trying to blame alcohol poisoning on poor-quality moonshine. They point to a recent spate of poisonings in the Pskov region that were traced to shoddy liquor, and they’re now talking about reintroducing a state monopoly on alcohol sales. That would be misguided. Such a measure would do little to curb alcoholism; it would merely flood the black market with questionable home-brew. The truth is, most people who overdose on alcohol in this country do so on perfectly decent, brand-name vodka. If we’re to win the “war on booze,” we’ll have to recognize that the enemy isn’t bad liquor. It’s liquor.