America has a drinking problem
From Russia this article seems saddening, and actually a reverse of what we have experienced in the past decade. Alcohol consumption dropped from historical top 18 L of pure spirit/year/person, to 9, which is lower than during Gorbachov's anti-aclohol campaign and at 1950-60s levels. [1][2]<p>My version of why it happened, is that<p>1) in the 2000s, Russians had an impression that everybody drank and had fun, and they tried to match the common standard. Same thing was revealed in sociological studies in Western universities: every student said he wasn't drinking much but others were drinknig, so he had to do the same.
2) In the USSR, propaganda condemned drinking and at the same time we had an impression we were the most drinking country (according to statistics, it was completely wrong in the 90s, but was almost true in the 2000s). The reasoning (to abstain or strictly limit drinking) was ready for anyone.<p>Alcohol consumption soared in 2000s, from 12 to 18 L/year. But when many tried drinking to have fun and discovered that it wasn't much finnier, but was definitely more painful, they decided to abstain and took the reasons from media/propaganda, which were bulletproof.<p>Another reason is that<p>3) Social fabric got denser, and you could find more and more ways to socialize and have fun: hobbyists groups, community meetings, debates and enlightment, etc. Grassroots socialization was moderately persecuted in the late USSR, while Communist party and trade union meetings were obligatory, hence until mid-2000s Russians were allergic to any collectivism.<p>So, many started having more social activities, and had less need to hang out with drinks, or drink at home.<p>Compared to 2000s,<p>* it's extremely rare now to make jokes, sketches or comedy shows around being drunk
* people stopped having lots of drinks at office parties, stopped keeping alcohol -- nowadays nobody would care to bring wine or something else to the office in the first place<p>But generally, the culture is still quite restrictive towardrs drinking: student dorms strictly forbid alcohol, drinking is forbidden in most public spaces and in many cities it's enforced -- my friend got taken 5 times to police station to write a verbal, and then had to pay fines. (That said, in other cites one may walk down a street with a beer, nobody would care.)<p>[1] Road traffic mortality attributable to alcohol in Russia, Razvodovsky YE. DOI: 10.15761/MHAR.1000122 
<a href="https://www.oatext.com/Road-traffic-mortality-attributable-to-alcohol-in-Russia.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.oatext.com/Road-traffic-mortality-attributable-t...</a> alcohol consumption charts
[2] Population Drinking and Homicide Rate in RussiaRazvodovsky YE*, DOI: 10.41 72/2167-0358.1000182 <a href="https://www.longdom.org/open-access/population-drinking-and-homicide-rate-in-russia-2167-0358-1000182.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.longdom.org/open-access/population-drinking-and-...</a>