ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses drinking and the prevention of alcoholism. While the chemical properties of alcohol provide a necessary base, the behavioural concomitants of drinking alcohol depend as much on ideas of what alcohol does to a person as they do on complex biochemical processes. A ban on alcohol is usually imposed when it is considered dangerous to heighten the emotions of large numbers of people who gather together at the same occasion. For although alcohol control measures are frequently modified in many parts of the world it is very difficult to assess their effect. Alcohol control policies in Finland have traditionally favoured beverages with a low alcohol content.
