The Public Health Perspective and the Transformation of Norwegian Alcohol Policy

Abstract

Norwegian alcohol policy has traditionally had as its main target to prevent alcohol abuse and its consequences: drunkenness resulting in aggression, violence and other antisocial acts, as well as chronic abuse resulting in neglected children and poverty. However, since the late 1960s the focus has gradually changed. Instead there has been an increased preoccupation with the harmful consequences for the users themselves—especially health problems—resulting from more or less moderate drinking; a change that to a great extent is linked to the computerized alcohol research made possible by technological advances. This paper argues that the introduction of the public health perspective has weakened the traditional alcohol policy. The argument for strict regulation of alcohol is less obvious when based on harmful consequences for the users themselves than when based on harmful effects for others. This is not least the case when the harmful effects often are of a kind that the public do not experience themselves, but may only be demonstrated through research. In this situation the wisdom of a restrictive alcohol policy has been difficult to uphold.