Does Increased Availability of Licit Alcohol Influence the use of Unrecorded Alcoholic Beverages?

Abstract

In autumn 1991 the Norwegian Wine and Spirits Monopoly was permitted to open stores for off-license sales in three municipalities of the Sogn and Fjordane County — which until then had been the last county in Norway without monopoly stores. This gave the population the possibility to buy wine and spirits directly from the stores, instead of ordering it by post or spending a day travelling to stores outside the county.

Two surveys were carried out comprising representative samples consisting of 6 000 adults in the three municipalities where stores were opened, and 6 000 from other municipalities in the county; one survey shortly before the stores were opened, and the second a year later. One of the aims of the study was to see if the opening of the stores had any influence on the use of home-made alcoholic beverages or smuggled spirits. The share of the respondents who said that they had drunk these kinds of unrecorded alcoholic beverages in the last 12 months decreased in both type of municipalities from 1991 to 1992 — but the decrease was more pronounced in municipalities where monopoly stores were opened than in the others. It was also found that unrecorded alcoholic beverages were used much more seldom in 1992 than in 1991 in municipalities with stores — while they were used more often in municipalities without stores.

One of the arguments for the opening of the stores was the wish to decrease the use of unrecorded beverages. The results of the study seems to imply that at least to a certain extent this goal was achieved.