[reisse]

> Russia has extreme levels of alcoholism and drug abuse.

Russia _had_ extreme levels of alcoholism in the 1990s and in the beginning of 2000s. Since then, their anti-alcohol campaign was very effective. Instead of outright banning alcohol (which was tried in the 1980s and led to a bootlegging boom), they taxed the hell out of strong liquors, prohibited advertising them, prohibited nighttime sale of alcoholic drinks including beer, prohibited everything except beer on sports events, and executed other measures to make alcoholic beverages _uncomfortable_ to obtain.

As a result, alcohol consumption per capita decreased nearly twofold. Now average Russian drinks less than average American [1].

1. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/alcohol-consump...

[who_not_cia]

The World Health Organization's numbers are broken down a bit more [1].

Claiming a twofold decrease since the beginning of the 2000's is not supported by the WHO's numbers. Peak consumption in Russia looks to be in 2006, there's been a 28% decrease in consumption since 2006.

Women in Russia do consume less than women in the USA in 2020, 4.2L vs 4.4L but Russian men still out drink their American counterparts at 18.1L vs 15.5L.

The WHO numbers of litres of alcohol consumed per-captia, three year average:

Russia

  2020 M&F 10.5 [ 7.2 - 13.9] M 18.1 [12.5 - 24.1] F 4.2 [2.9 - 5.6]
  2006 M&F 14.6 [10.9 - 18.5] M 25.0 [18.5 - 31.5] F 6.0 [4.4 - 7.6] 
  2000 M&F 13.9 [10.1 - 17.7] M 23.7 [17.2 - 30.2] F 5.6 [4.0 - 7.2]

USA

  2020 M&F  9.9 [ 7.3 - 12.8] M 15.5 [11.4 - 19.9] F 4.4 [3.2 - 5.8]
  2006 M&F  9.4 [ 6.6 - 12.3] M 14.8 [10.4 - 19.3] F 4.2 [3.0 - 5.6]
  2000 M&F  9.1 [ 6.4 - 11.7] M 14.3 [10.2 - 18.6] F 4.0 [2.8 - 5.3]

1. <https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...>

[VK538FY]

Thank you for citing real statistics instead of idées reçues from the 1990s, as the above poster did.