Iceland review - 2004, Page 29

ICELAND REVIEW 27
Ah, alcohol. Here in Iceland, where the population has one of the highest rates of alco-
holism in Europe, the government has used the guise of concern to maintain total control
over the sale of alcohol then pad its coffers with tax revenues.
In the early 1800s, the temperance movement gained popularity throughout Northern
Europe. In Europe, as in the US later, community leaders reacted to the sudden abundance
of cheap liquor that more advanced agricultural methods produced. Whether not this cheap
liquor- and not the change in social conditions brought on by industrialization- was the
cause, the temperance movement caught on, with religious organizations claiming moder-
ation (or complete abstinence) in the use of intoxicating liquids was a surefire way to the
promised land. (Drunks have told me a slightly different version of the same tale.) The ear-
liest temperance communities in Europe were in Norway and Sweden, and back then what
was good for Norway was good for Iceland. Thus, temperance and abstinence became the
bedrock of education and legislation in Icelandic society.
MONEY INTO THE COFFER
Iceland has a history of peculiar laws governing the sale of alcohol,
including the highest tax on wine in all of Europe. Is it time for a
change of policy?
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Alcohol 14.6.2004 21:25 Page 27