CHEAP HIGH, HIGH RISK
Russia’s illegal booze trend
As the economic crisis sweeps through Russia, a dangerous trend is emerging in this heavy- drinking country: the rise in consumption of potentially lethal moonshine, medical alcohol or even cleaning products.
Layoffs, wage cuts and price increases are combining to worsen the problem of alcoholism, which has long been a major public health issue, by increasing the mix of dangerous products in the market. Those who can no longer afford storebought drinks are turning to “under the counter” alternatives that can cause serious damage, even death.
Alexander Polikarpov, the head doctor of the Alcospas chain of re- hab clinics in Moscow, says he has noticed a “wave” of complications in patients, such as delirium tremens — also known as “the shakes” — and epilepsy.
Polikarpov’s staff of up to 40 doctors specializes in providing emergency detox for drinkers whose families are desperate to end a multi- day binge. Their patients are more likely to be vodka drinkers scaling down to low- cost, lower- quality varieties. The more desperate cases of alcoholics using industrial products tend to occur in more remote, rural regions.
“A number of patients who previously could afford expensive spirits are now forced to reorient in the sense that they use cheaper and lower- quality spirits,” Polikarpov says in his consulting room in the capital’s suburbs.
Sales of legal beer and vodka have fallen sharply as prices rise, buoyed in part by the rising cost of imported ingredients after the ruble’s value tumbled last year. Analysts say falling sales likely don’t mean that demand is falling, simply that it is being pushed into an illegal and dangerous black market.
The alternatives to increasingly costly legal alcohol are many and varied. At the safer end of the scale is vodka production diverted and sold on the side by workers at legitimate distilleries, but some products, such as industrial spirits or moonshine made by inexperienced or unscrupulous distillers, can be lethal. Some of the most harmful yet popular alternatives to legal alcohol are liquids designed “for hair growth or for cleaning the bath,” says market analyst Vadim Drobiz.
Sales of beer, Russia’s most popular alcoholic drink, were down 10.5 per cent year- on- year by volume in January, according to figures from Nielsen Russia. The beer market remained stable by value because prices rose to a new high, Nielsen spokesperson Ekaterina Lukina told The Associated Press.
Vodka, which is more popular among older drinkers, contin- ued a long- term decline in sales, which fell 17.6 per cent by volume and 2 per cent by value. That drop is mainly due to government actions to combat alcoholism by instituting a legal minimum price for vodka. While that minimum of 185 rubles ($ 2.96) for a half- litre bottle is low by European standards, it is costly for low- earning Russians in the poverty- stricken provincial towns where moonshine is most popular.