Actually in Poland alcohol is not a problem. According to WHO we drink less alcohol than most of Europeans. France, Belgium, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland or Netherlands are examples of countries with higher consumption of alcohol per capita.

Source: http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf

Interesting. I like when something I think I know turns out to be a myth or something like that. Learning new stuff is always fun. :)

WHO is the organization.

That's what I want to find out.

WHO.

I mean the organization's name.

WHO.

The World Health Organization.

WHO.

I'm asking you who's the organization.

That's the organization's name.

Who?

Yes.

All I'm trying to find out is what's the organization's name.

No. WHAT is the World Hunger Awareness Team.

Who's on first? :P

If I'm not mistaken, the average life expectancy of russian men at the moment is somewhere in the 50s. That's low, and it's basically because they smoke and drink themselves to death. Seriously, there are a LOT of widows in Russia ...
We've always had a very conservative additude towards all kinds of stimulants. In fact, up until 1922 ALL alcohol was banned. The institution that would later morph into a wholly state-owned monopoly on alcohol distribution started as a result of trade negotiations with France around wine.

Since then we just never really bothered changing the model. Most people are happy with it. The high cost of alcohol helps keep consumption down, without a doubt. I mean, at some level you have to recognize that we are among the top bilge drinkers in the world, as any trip to a destination frequented by travelling norwegians should prove. Therefore we pretty much freely choose to tax it to heaven come, and I can't recall there ever being much political pressure or movement towards changing this system, at least not since we lifted almost all import bans.

Countries I stated have bigger overall alcohol consumption measured in liters of pure ethyl alcohol consumed per capita.

Here you have a nice map:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Alcohol_consumption_per_capita_world_map.PNG/800px-Alcohol_consumption_per_capita_world_map.PNG

Here you have interactive list based on WHO data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

Even if we look at consumption of spirits (beverages that have an alcohol content of at least 20%) we are far on the list. We may consume more vodka than others, but there are other strong beverages like Whiskey or Gin.

That's a lie! :D