Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2007, Blaðsíða 4

06_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 1_007_INTERVIEW/ALCHOHOLISM
Alcohol and drug use in Iceland tends to be the
topic of heated conversations before and after
the annual holiday weekend Verslunarmanna-
helgin, which usually is associated with heavy-
drinking at many outdoor festivals around the
country. Some people claim that a lack of a
proper wine-culture is tormenting the country,
and that Icelanders can’t handle the drink
without turning into a bunch of barbarians.
News on violence in the centre of Reykjavík
on weekends and reports on attacks lately has
done little too ease their nerves.
Not everyone agrees on the subject or
whether there actually is a serious problem to
worry about. Many locals would like to see less
restriction when it comes to alcohol sales and
find the fact that alcohol can only be bought
at the state-owned ÁTVR liquor stores simply
outrageous, not to mention the price they
have to pay for the bottle.
Grapevine visited the treatment clinic Vogur
and sat down with Dr. Þórarinn Tyrfingsson,
Chief Medical Director of SÁÁ to discuss these
issues.
It seems only appropriate to ask you; do
you see alcohol abuse as a major problem
in Icelandic society?
Alcohol consumption has been a big prob-
lem, yes. Today, though, we’re facing a much
better situation than in most other countries
with alcoholism and drug-abuse, and this is
despite the fact that [Icelanders] drink a lot and
many people face problems with alcohol. We
have in a way learnt how to solve our drink-
ing problems. By emphasising – with a more
open society – on helping alcoholics, providing
proper treatments and social services, we have
managed to change the scope and develop-
ment of the problem.
But as in other societies, we have a mi-
nority group, a relatively small one, that is in
bad shape. What has also happened here is
that an increasing number of people, young
people especially, fall off the wagon in a differ-
ent way. These are people that have dropped
out of school and find it hard to get jobs and
therefore need help from the municipalities
and the society.
Are Icelanders drinking more heavily in
recent years?
I think that people tend to focus too much on
the problems. That applies to teenage drink-
ing, for example. On June 17 [Icelandic Inde-
pendence Day], somebody shot footage of
teenagers drinking downtown, which was later
broadcast on US TV. There, people perceived
it as presenting a typical midday in Iceland,
with masses of teenagers drinking heavily. In
reality, showing this once-a-year event when
things get out of hand for a few individuals
at the end of a national celebration, that’s
just taking things out of context. We are just
like other Europeans. We handle alcohol just
like they do, the problem isn’t any worse in
Iceland today.
On the other hand, looking to the future,
the next five years will in all likelihood see us
moving the average alcohol consumption up
to ten litres per individual per year up. We
have gone very fast from drinking five litres per
year to seven. The move from seven to eight
litres, and eight to ten, is a much more serious
concern, so we need to prepare ourselves for
health problems among the middle-aged and
senior contingent in the future.
I think that the issue boils down to this:
teenagers have the opportunities to drink,
like they have always had. They have access
to alcohol, they drink badly and they drink a
lot. That hasn’t changed through the years.
The current change in drinking habits will for
the most part be evident among a group of
people belonging to the generation which
was born around the Second World War and
little later. Members of that group have started
drinking heavily, and on a daily basis; this is
a development we will notice. That’s why the
political decisions made in the future are very
important. I think that many countries envy
our strategy in the past, and our restrictive
policy.
Some Icelanders see such government
control, the fact that alcohol is only sold
at state owned liquor stores, for example,
as being too restrictive…
The restrictions aren’t that great, and we have
moved away from our original policy, i.e. to
not have alcohol on special offer at the liquor
store or to mix the sales outlets with regular
business life. Today, liquor stores can be found
inside chain stores and shopping malls and
liquor licences have grown in number. All this
has had effects. But then, things are taken out
of context and people start discussing single
matters instead of looking at the full picture.
We need to discuss the general drinking age,
the outlets, bars and restaurants and surveil-
lance, and we need to talk about prices, but
people tend to focus more on single factors.
We can just as well expect that the policy will
change and that we will adopt the same system
as the Western-European nations, who drink
most in the world, i.e. Germans, Danes, the
Dutch and the British. And then Icelanders will
drink the most of all nations in the world. Then
we will reach that stage.
There have been heated discussions re-
garding the high price of alcohol in Ice-
land and whether the price should be
lowered…
The price of alcohol isn’t high in Iceland. These
talks are nothing but propaganda tools used
by those who want to earn a larger share of
alcohol sales profits. That’s what the issue is
about. What I want is a reasonable policy and
well-advised legislation, because if we don’t
have that, the public will pay in the end. If we
are seriously discussing lowering alcohol prices,
we have to look at where increased alcohol
use will be most evident, and how much of a
price cut we’re talking about. All these things
matter a great deal.
Are available treatment resources for al-
coholics and drug addicts adequate in
Iceland? For example, is enough being
spent on institutions such as Vogur?
Our treatment system is much more advanced
than elsewhere, as we people here can attend
rehabilitation programs free of charge. People
debate whether these individuals [who go to
rehab] get enough treatment all the time, but
our situation is better than in other countries.
I think that it is ultimately profitable for society
to have good treatment programmes. We could
be doing better in helping these individuals
back on their feet and into the society again
after their treatment. This may prove expensive,
but needs to be dealt with.
How many people are annually admitted
at Vogur?
Every year, approximately 1,800 individuals are
admitted. Overall, we’ve treated more than
18,000 Icelanders. Half of them have only
come once. Around 80% come three times or
less, and less than 3% have been admitted in
the hospital ten times or more. This indicates
that the program is working, and in the second
place that those who are in the worst condition
are always welcomed back. It also tells us that if
we want to minimize their returns, we need to
improve and add to resources available to them
post-rehabilitation. Full co-operation between
the social system and the health care system is
sometimes lacking. It is an expensive process,
because the solutions can be very complicated.
What is the largest group that comes in
for treatment?
People of all ages seek our help, ranging from
ages 14 to 86. In the past, our largest group
of patients were in the 25-to-45 age bracket.
What has happened through the years, how-
ever, is that this group remains the same size
in numbers but is getting comparatively smaller
compared to other age groups.
Recently, assault cases in the city centre
have caused a stir among some locals.
Many say that they fear to venture down-
town after midnight, and some even refer
to Reykjavík as “The City of Fear,” citing in-
creased drug and alcohol abuse in the 101
area. Do you feel the situation has grown
worse, or are the claims unfounded?
The problem increased between 1995 and
2000, but for the past years a certain balance
has been in order. The situation isn’t improv-
ing, but it isn’t getting worse either. I don’t
know where the future will lead us. Many
things indicate that the condition is getting
better in regards to young people. There are
comparatively fewer teenagers coming to us
that have been injecting themselves with opi-
ates such as heroin. There are many positive
factors we must not forget about. At the same
time, we face another problem, which is the
abuse of stimulants, especially among people
aged 20 to 40. Such drug use has been rising
and these individuals tend to mix the drugs
with alcohol.
People have pointed out that this cocktail
of stimulating drugs (such as amphet-
amines) and alcohol conduces aggres-
sion and violent behaviour in the city
centre…
Yes. Young people who drink and get intoxi-
cated tend to get aggressive. It has always
been like that. An abuse of stimulants will add
to that behaviour, which makes matters even
worse. A lot of violent behaviour and disorder
can be traced to the use of steroids, drugs and
alcohol; who all have had terrible effects on
society. A lot of confrontations can be traced
back to this, a significant problem.
So what could be done?
City planning is important. People should be
able to go out and have fun close to their
homes. It has bad effects on a society to have
large party centres in a city. It is much more
efficient to bring the entertainment closer to
the public, into the neighbourhoods. Today,
there are way too many bars and clubs located
in a small area where few people live. These
people have little political say and aren’t able
to have any real influence on their surrounding.
As I see it, this is a civil-engineering issue. We
need to have smaller centres where people can
gather and find entertainment and we could
do better in changing our city and creating a
more culture-orientated entertainment, instead
of just focusing on drinking.
In the end, I would also like to point out
that we need to make a clear distinction be-
tween alcohol and drug abuse that goes out
of hand, which is a social issue, and alcohol
abuse and drug addiction as a disease. The
same principles don’t apply to the two. Teen-
age drinking is a social issue, which needs to
be dealt with by increasing surveillance and
other things. What we can do to help those
with alcohol disease and drug addiction is to
provide the best treatment we can.
On Icelanders and their Alcohol
Text by Steinunn Jakobsdóttir Photo by Gulli
“We can just as well ex-
pect that the policy will
change and that we will
adopt the same system as
the Western-European na-
tions, who drink most in
the world, i.e. Germans,
Danes, the Dutch and the
British. And then Iceland-
ers will drink the most of
all nations in the world.
Then we will reach that
stage.”
Drífa ehf, Sudurhraun 12 C, 210 Gardabaer, Iceland, Tel +354-555 7400, Fax +354-555 7401, icewear@icewear.is
since 1972
ICEWEAR clothes and products are available at the following stores:
Reykjavík: Rammagerðin, Hafnarstræti 19 - Ullarhúsið, Austurstræti 3, Reykjavik – Thorvaldsenbazar, Austurstræti 4
Islandia, Kringlan Shopping Center - The Viking, Hafnarstræti 3 - Handprjónasambandið, Skólavörðustíg 19, Laugavegi 64
Ull og Gjafavörur, Hótel Sögu, Lækjargötu 2 – Hitt Hornið, Laugavegi 100 – Álafoss Verksmiðjusala, Laugavegi 1– Ísey, Klapparstíg 30
Other locations: Blue Lagoon, Svartengi – Rammagerðin, Flugstöð Leifs Eiríkssonar – Eden, Hveragerði – Geysir Shops, Haukadal
Byggðasafnið Skógum - The Viking, Akureyri – Mývatnsmarkaður, Mývatn – Mývatn ehf, Skútustöðum, Mývatn
Tákn Sport og Útivist, Húsavík - Sæferðir, Stykkishólmur - El Grillo, Seyðisfjörður – Álafoss Verksmiðjusala, Álafossvegi 23, Mosfellbæ