Alcohol cultures in Finland and Alaska: explosive drinking patterns and their consequences.

Introduction

Drinking cultures reflect collective behaviour and imply that changes within cultures generally occur in concert. (1) Historically-dominant uses of alcohol impact societies' alcohol cultures, (2) and research shows that the qualitative features of drinking patterns evolve slowly, over decades or generations. (3) Both Finland and Alaska developed binge drinking styles, and each region suffers from social pathologies related to this "explosive" drinking pattern. In the case of Finland, the pattern was set centuries ago, by internal geographical and socio-cultural forces. In Alaska's case, Russians and Euro-Americans who arrived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brought with them an abusive "frontier" drinking style that some believe set the pattern for the state's alcohol-associated problems that disproportionately affect Alaska Natives. (4)

Numerous studies have shown that both the volume and pattern of alcohol consumption correlate with specific social pathologies. European studies show a correlation between higher consumption on single occasions (binge drinking or uncontrolled drinking) and higher levels of violence. (5) Generally, there is a north-south gradient in western Europe, where drinking is more sporadic but intense in more northern countries and more frequent but moderate in the southern countries. The latter, wet, culture is relatively rare in global terms; whereas the cultural norm of binge drinking, the dry culture, is much more common globally. (6) Finland's drinking culture exemplifies the dry culture with its historic pattern of sporadic consumption with "explosive episodes" that often coincide with violent and otherwise problematic behaviours. (7) Alaska's drinking culture lies closer to the centre of the wet-dry spectrum, though definitely on the dry side, with its high rates of pathologies associated with abusive drinking. In rural Alaska the drinking patterns and pathologies more closely resemble Finland's "explosive" drinking style.

In addition to level of consumption and drinking pattern, cultural norms affect the social pathologies associated with alcohol consumption, as MacAndrew and Edgerton argue in their classic text Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation. They reject the conventional wisdom that alcohol consumption causes or leads to violent and otherwise antisocial behaviour. Noting broad variations in drunken comportment throughout the world, they conclude that behaviour changes result not from the disinhibitive effects of alcohol on the brain, as many assume, but from the degree of social tolerance for drunken behaviour in a given society. In other words, people learn the boundaries of drunken behaviour, just as the), learn other social norms. (8)

Public policies both reflect and shape social norms. Finland's national alcohol policies have attempted to restrict both physical and economic access to alcohol in order to reduce total consumption and harm. Recently, European Union integration and increasing public resistance to such paternalism have limited Finland's alcohol policy options. The results are a sharp increase in consumption and related harm.

The United States, including Alaska, tried nationwide prohibition (as did Finland). Following its failure, alcohol policies have generally been state and local, although federal Indian policy prohibited sales to Native Americans until 1953. Following this change in federal policy, the flow of alcohol and related harms eventually overwhelmed rural and Alaska Natives, and the state responded with the Local Option, allowing rural Alaskans to prohibit sales and/or importation of alcohol to their villages. Over one hundred villages have some form of Local Option today. The vast majority of them are in "bush Alaska," that is, off the road system, which eases enforcement of the alcohol restrictions. Yet Alaskans, especially Alaska Natives continue to abuse alcohol disproportionately, and the social and economic costs are high. The University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research's "Status of Alaska Natives 2004 Report" focuses much of its attention on the "rampant alcohol abuse and the resultant 'culture of violence' within the Alaska Native community." (9)

Alaskans and Finns are well aware of the harms associated with their excesses in drinking, although many Alaskans likely are unaware that their rates of consumption and alcohol-related pathologies exceed the national mean, even ...

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