This week they announced an increase in the excise tax on alcohol. It can be said that the measure was planned. This is all due to inflation and no one really cares about the health of the nation. And the increase is quite symbolic; 3% in total. At the same time, people in Russia appear to be drinking more. Although the statistics are actually quite contradictory. The Ministry of Health assures that the amount of pure alcohol per capita is slowly but continuing to decrease, and Rosalkogolregulirovanie notes a sharp increase in sales of all kinds of alcohol-containing drinks. Sociologists also note that Russians are more likely to relieve stress by drinking.
What’s going on? So, are we facing a new alcohol hole?
Let’s start with the numbers to get the picture clear. Russia broke the alcohol record in 1994. At that time, each person consumed 18 liters of pure alcohol per year. This terrible trend was reversed in 1998, after which the figure decreased every year, and in 2008 ethanol consumption dropped to 15.7 liters per capita per year, and in 2019 to 9 liters, according to the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko. Optimistic. According to the official, alcohol consumption continues to decrease: they say that in 2021 in Russia it will be 8.82 liters for each resident, and in 2022 it will already be 8.62.
At the same time, Rosalkogolregulirovanie also shares other data. 549 million liters of strong alcohol were sold in our country only in the first half of 2022; This figure is 42 million liters more than the same period in 2021. According to the Center for Research on Federal and Territorial Alcohol Markets (CIFRRA), vodka sales increased by an average of 8.2%, whiskey, rum, tequila and other industrial moonshine sales increased by 16.8% and 23.8% during the same period. %. – liqueurs stronger than 25%, 74% – low alcohol drinks such as gin and tonic and 110% – liqueur wines.
Alcohol sales increased again this year. For example, in the period January to July 2023, sales of liqueur wine in stores increased by 97.3% compared to the same period last year. There was a 30.6 percent increase in wine drinks with added ethyl alcohol, a 17 percent increase in low alcohol drinks, a 10 percent increase in cognac consumption, and a 28 percent increase in hard bitters.
Sociologists also describe a reality clouded by wine smoke. And they note that people have been drinking more since the coronavirus pandemic. If in 2018 there were 14% of people who admitted to drinking several times a month, in 2021 this rate increased to 18%. In the same year, the death rate from alcohol increased by 6%. Sociologists noted that the increase in alcohol sales in 2022 coincides with the increase in the level of anxiety among Russians. As surveys show, in March 2022, 70% of citizens experienced anxiety, and the same happened in September.
Beautiful words and news history. This summer, for example, we learned that not only is there more alcohol in our lives again, but also the return of outright nonsense, a surrogate, a poison. There was a mass poisoning with “Mr. Cider” in June. In general, the share of counterfeit goods varies between one-quarter and one-third of the market. Also alcohol is cheap. The price level in Russia is 37% lower than the world average. Why? Because the main audience of alcohol markets is the poor. Meanwhile, alcohol markets, along with food discounters, became the fastest-growing chains by the end of 2022; individual alcohol chains increased the number of trading platforms by 35%.
We’re probably all seeing the return of alcohol culture on a parochial level. Anyone with eyes, of course. The internet is once again full of jokes about Friday, about getting high, about how if you don’t know what to invest in, you should smoke it. They posted memes about the unfortunate “Mr. Cider” – and in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. 36 deaths; you will laugh.
But how good he was at it. All these grimacing drunks have dispersed into their kitchens, into private corners of the Internet that barely intersect with the public area. They felt like their time was passing. Those who wanted to remain in society began to perceive their alcoholism at least critically, or as a fashionable neurotic bug, and added to all this psychotherapy, anonymous meetings and “12 steps”.
In principle, our people are tolerant towards many things, as long as others do not brag. But those who want to forever remain in the image of an alcoholic joker, and even aggressively pull everyone they encounter into their orbit, have become as unbearable as some damn vegans. Yes, he was good in tenth place. But then came the twenties. And these laughing drunks came back to us. And it’s like they’re the winners (they think so). And I will not save anyone from them. From his unfunny jokes, sayings, refrains, tales, stories about his drunken adventures. This gallows humor makes my cheekbones hurt. This humor is only good in artistic reinterpretation, in literature, in cinema. And in ordinary life there is melancholy.
No matter how many jokes you make, there is no escaping the truth. And the truth is that people don’t drink because they have a good life. And there is no truth in wine. People drink away their fears and complexes and use alcohol to combat loneliness.
Yes, there are still people who are madly afraid of psychologists and cannot trust even those closest to them, and there are a lot of them; It is easier for them to drink and talk in front of a random interlocutor. rod. There are still people who prefer to indulge in alcoholic “fun” rather than solving problems. And maybe they’ve become more active now, and maybe even more situationally. But the thing is, most people don’t perceive this as normal anymore.
Even many former alcoholics who have tried sobriety have found that having a healthy and clear mind is boring and unusual only at first, but in general there are so many exciting things in life that the bottle itself turns into something extremely boring. What can we say about people who have never experienced alcohol addiction and have never treated depression with cognac? They can drink on holiday, they can drink a glass of weak dry wine if they want, but they watch with astonishment the drunken scenes at the gates of the “Normans” and “KB” and the fights in the squares and bars. unfortunately their numbers have increased. The tolerance limit for such things in society seems to have dropped considerably. And I hope this will save us from falling into the alcoholic abyss.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.