About Finnish alcohol consumption

Alcohol consumption in Finland is one the highest in Europe. Finns also tend to use alcohol at somewhere else than in restaurants nowadays. That's why every time when Finnish politicians talk about changes in alcohol policy people tend to get somewhat mad about it. Especially when the government is trying to rise taxes in alcohol, and people want those lower because in some other European countries (like Germany and Belgium) taxes are a lot lower. Probably the most notable example about lower taxes in other Europe is Estonian taxation, because they are so close that you can just take a boat and sail there to buy cheaper booze. And when people buy their alcohol from Estonia, they usually buy larger amounts and drink this stuff at their home. And that causes the problems to restaurants and community. 

When the government is raising taxes, and steering consumption outside restaurants or from other controlled environment. For restaurant business this is obvious problem. Because less consumption in restaurants is less money for restaurants. Or for bars. Other problem about this is that when consumption doesn't happen in controlled environment, teenagers can easily get some to their hands too. And this underage drinking is considered as a problem in Finland, and it definitely is a problem too. 

Our opinion for this case is that Finnish government should try to steer consumption back to restaurants and bars instead of just raising taxes. Every time they have raised taxes, more alcohol has started to come from other countries. This is not good progress, and they should take action for this.