Dead Drunk
By : Celia Barnes
Legless: There are about 700,000 alcoholics in Poland and about 2 million more alcohol abusers.
Jacek was 16 the first time he got hammered. He enjoyed the sensation so much that soon he was getting smashed every weekend, then every day after school. His summer holidays became an opportunity to go on three-week binges, drinking himself into a stupor on cheap, fortified fruit wine.
By the time he was 19, Jacek realized he had more than just a drinking problem: He had followed his late father's example and become an alcoholic.
Ignoring all his mother's attempts to undergo treatment, it would be another five drunken years, and many lost jobs later, before Jacek would seek help at Alcoholics Anonymous. But today, aged 30, he proudly declares he has been sober for almost seven years.
"If I hadn't sought help, I don't know where I would be today," Jacek said. "Maybe I wouldn't be alive because in the last stage of my drinking I had very persistent, suicidal thoughts.
"Or maybe I would still be a drunk bingeing for two weeks and then sobering up for a couple of weeks before starting again. I just don't know and I don't want to imagine it."
Young, gifted and smashed
Jacek, who is now married and works in the IT industry, is one of a growing number of young Poles who are either dependent on alcohol or who are regular alcohol abusers. It's part of a worldwide phenomenon. While total alcohol consumption is declining, it appears that more underaged youngsters are drinking regularly, and starting at an earlier age. The most recent data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) said that in 1996 40.4% of all Polish teens aged 15-19 had consumed alcohol. And when comparing the growth rate of this phenomenon between the sexes, young girls are winning the race.
Jacek has seen these changes first hand. When he joined Alcoholics Anonymous, there were so many young drunks coming through its doors a special "Young AA" group was created. Today, there are six "Young AA" groups across the country, meeting every night of the week.
Jerzy Melliburda, director of PARPA, the government agency monitoring alcohol abuse and the driving force behind legislation to outlaw beer adds in Poland.
According to research conducted by Poland's government-funded State Agency for the Prevention of Alcohol-Related Problems (PARPA) (http://www.parpa.pl), there are about 700,000 alcoholics in Poland and about 2 million alcohol abusers which is consistent with global figures. During the past five years, PARPA estimates the level of underage drinking in Poland has increased by about 10-15%. During that same period, the number of minors who admit to being seriously drunk in the past month has risen by 25%.
The biggest fear for PARPA Director Jerzy Mellibruda is that more underage drinking will mean more future alcoholics and he doubts that the current treatment clinics and programs in Poland are equipped to cope with this. And because of the link between unemployment and drinking, with the job rate in Poland suffering, he believes the number of young people drinking will continue to increase.
"If you find 100 teenagers, I can estimate that maybe two or three of them will become alcoholics," Mellibruda said. "Twenty-five of them will be having a lot of problems now. If you're drinking in the teenage period, the probability of getting a higher education is much lower; there are career issues, family and relationship issues, domestic violence issues and, of course, health issues too."
Mellibruda estimates that the social cost of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in adults and minors represents 5% of Poland's gross domestic product (GDP), in terms of costs involving hospitalization, treatment for associated health problems, lost productivity at work, alcohol-related car accidents, policing and court cases.
Police figures also indicate an increase. During 2000, the number of young drunks picked up on the streets and taken to the local government-run "sobriety centers" to dry out for 24 hours rose alarmingly. In 2000, 6,994 drunk boys were admitted an increase of 43.9% over 1999. Admissions of young girls increased by 191.3%, to 539.
The number of intoxicated minors being charged by police for committing serious crimes, including murder, assault, theft and property damage, is also increasing marginally. It prompted a special directive from police headquarters to all local police stations to focus on combating the problem of underage drinking.
So why are the youth of today drinking more than ever? The main reason is culture and lifestyle.
The taste of freedom
Poland's drinking culture both of its youth and adults has been undergoing a massive shift during the past 10 years. Since Poland's return to democracy in 1989, the country has tasted freedom of choice and has willingly adopted more Western habits. When it comes to alcohol, this means a move away from vodka to the beverage more often associated with its Western neighbors beer.
According to GUS statistics, the annual per capita consumption of beer has doubled from 30.4 liters in 1980 to 60.1 liters in 1999. Wine consumption (which also includes mead) has increased marginally from 10.1 liters to 13.6 liters, while the amount of 100% pure spirit consumed diluted into various vodka products has fallen from 6 liters to 2.1 liters.
However, the head of the National Spirit Industry Council, Jozef Kapela, who represents the interests of the 18 state-owned Polmoses where all Polish vodka is manufactured, said these figures are deceiving. He believes that Poles are drinking as much vodka as ever but up to 30% of it is from illegal stills or unlicensed imports. Under communism, there were about 150 vodka brands available. Now it's close to 1,000, but the rise in excise tax during the past five years has caused a corresponding drop in legitimate sales, Kapela said. Today, about 90% of the price of vodka is tax; the rate on beer is closer to 56%.
"I insist that consumption has not dropped," he said. "In the past there was simply not such a big difference (between beer and vodka) in terms of excise tax. And the border controls were tighter.
"But I do agree that the way of drinking has changed. Alcohol is not consumed in its strong form, rather people are diluting it with mixers."
CDM Pekao analyst Bogna Sikorska estimates the beer industry today is worth an annual zl. 5 billion ($1.25 billion) and the (legal) vodka industry, a relatively paltry zl. 500 million ($125 million).
Sikorska said that under communism there were just three beer brands available: Zywiec, Warka and Okocim, all of which were dreadful then. Today, there are more than 150 brands.
"(Beer drinking) is a very new culture for Polish people," she said. "We still drink vodka at family meetings and special occasions, and then we drink far too much vodka."
But beer now seems to be the drink of choice for young people. Pawel Kwiatkowski, public affairs manager at Kompania Piwowarska brewers of Lech beer has been eagerly watching this market growth.
"What you have to understand is that this country is still going through a transition period," he said. "It's not only drinking habits that are changing, it's everything the relationship to work habits, lifestyle, everything changes and I think we're getting closer to whatever you may see as the Western living standard, and that's why people prefer beer.
"One reason may be that people want to keep their jobs. They don't want to get irresponsibly drunk (on vodka), which was commonplace during the communist era. So it's better to have just two beers instead of having half a liter of vodka."
Andrzej Dlugosz, a beer industry spokesman from local PR firm Cross Media, also believes that young people today are becoming more socially advanced, with more money and new options for their leisure time. It comes as no surprise then, to learn that Lech is also a sponsor of popular sports such as speedway bikes, the Polish 2001 Olympic team and Poland's national soccer team.
As seen on TV
One of the loudest critics of the beer industry's sponsorship and advertising agenda is PARPA's Mellibruda, who is also a professor at Warsaw's Academy of Social Psychology and chairman of the department of psychology of addiction and violence.
Under the 1982 Act on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism, all alcohol advertising in Poland has been banned. However, media monitoring company, Expert Monitor, calculates that Polish beer companies spent almost zl. 225 million ($56.2 million) on advertising in 2000.
Essential information honest: A billboard ad designed only to help inform store owners about ways to spot bootleg bottles of Sobieski Vodka - not to advertise the product, allegedly.
Beer advertising is still regularly shown on prime-time TV and on billboards on Warsaw's major streets. This beer, however, is alcohol-free. Sobieski vodka has avoided the ban altogether with its current billboard promoting the bottle's new spout.
"We have done research asking young people how they perceive these advertisements and what they think about the influence it has on them, and the majority of them confirm that there is a relationship (between advertising and their drink choice)," Mellibruda said. "The adult population is not so much under the influence of advertising but young people are generally influenced more by this kind of advertising."
This is in line with the view of the World Health Organization, which has called for an international review on the relationship between alcohol advertising and promotion and consumption by young people.
The other laws being flouted at the moment include open-container legislation and tightened controls on the sale of alcohol to minors. PARPA research estimates that 50% of shops, restaurants and pubs sell alcohol to minors, despite the threat of fines and license withdrawals. Last year, police cancelled 138 alcohol licenses.
The government was concerned enough about the consistent exploitation of the sobriety laws that an amendment to its Sobriety Act, designed to curtail these problems, is awaiting approval by President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"I would not like to speak badly of the Poles, but definitely one of our bad features is that we have this inclination to take alcohol too often," said Senator Dariusz Kleczek, who, as chairman of the Committee on Family and Social Policy, reviewed the amendments.
"No family event or party or even at work could be organized without alcohol. We did not have the tradition to spend an evening with friends just drinking wine or a glass of beer. Usually a lot of vodka was consumed at such occasions. So those positive steps to change the structure of drinking (to lower-alcohol beverages) have been achieved but what remains a problem is the consumption of high-alcohol-content vodka.
"And the other problem is the consumption by young people and children."
The amendments include a tightening on its ban on alcohol advertising including non-alcoholic beer and products associated with alcohol. There will be no billboard, magazine or newspaper ads, but beer ads will be permitted on television, radio and at cinemas between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Alcohol advertising is allowed inside all outlets that sell alcohol.
Sponsorship of events will be allowed, but only an alcohol company logo or a brand logo can be displayed on tickets, posters, or banners, or mentioned on TV and radio ads. There are also greater avenues for prosecution of shops found selling alcohol to minors. The amendments also clarify where drinking is forbidden namely streets and public parks. But, of course, the level of success will come down to the level of policing.
Anti-drinking programs
In 1994, under the Act, local districts were given the right to issue alcohol permits. In return, they receive funding derived from alcohol taxes to implement their own anti-drinking programs. PARPA, which coordinates this program, has recorded great success. In the 1980s, for every 100 alcoholics treated, only five would remain sober for 1-2 years. Now, the number of successful cases is 40-50.
PARPA has formulated programs for junior and high schools, work-place programs and programs for drink drivers. It has also launched advertising campaigns aimed at underage drinkers and at domestic violence the perpetrators of which, in 70% of cases, are drunk.
"What this legislation will do is help reduce some of the important causes of underage drinking," Mellibruda said.
In Warsaw, medical doctor Wojciech Wachol is at the forefront of this problem. For the past eight years, as the director of Warsaw's only sobriety center, he has seen the consequences of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, firsthand.
Despite the change in Polish drinking habits from strong spirits to beer, Wachol said his admission rates have hardly changed. Everyday, police, paramedics and local guards bring in 120 drunk people off the streets. The number of admissions, which dropped slightly during the past two years, had been rising steadily since 1990. The majority of admissions are men; women account for almost 7%, while the number of drunken boys being brought in has increased slightly.
"Smell the alcohol," Wachol said, sniffing the air. "It's everywhere here. It's awful."
A game of chance: Doctors say many binge drinkers don't realize they're alcoholics.
Police haul in a drunk thrashing around violently. They restrain him as they take his details, swap his clothes for a night shirt, and pass him over to the on-duty doctor who checks his alcohol reading and examines him for illness or injury. Like most other people who find themselves in a sobriety center, he will have up to 24 hours to sleep it off. Alcoholics are encouraged to undergo a five-day detoxification treatment at the center.
When they leave, they meet with one of the center's psychologists to convince them to undertake a program to curb their drinking. The center has specific programs for first timers, women, drunk drivers and repeat offenders.
"When we get minors here, the reaction we get from their parents is most interesting," said Wachol, a teetotaler. "Many don't believe that their children can drink. Sometimes the parents are drinking as well."
If the parents can't, or won't, come to the center to meet with the psychologist, a letter is sent to them, requesting they come for a consultation.
"Why? Because there must be a reason why these children are drinking and we need to find out what it is if we are to help them."
For more information go to:
World Health Organization (WHO)
(http://www.who.dk) www.eurocare.org (http://www.eurocare.org)
