>A while back there was a discussion about social causes of alcoholism.
>Alec, I think you raised the question. There is an article in the LA
>Times this morning, "Economy, Inebriation Linked in Mongolia"
>(Associated Press), making a direct link between increased use of
>alcohol in Mongolia and the transition from communism to capitalism.
>It's terribly sad what is happening there, poverty and unemployment have
>soared.
>
> I don't have a scanner or I would post it here.
It wasn't on the LAT site, but I nabbed it from Yahoo.
Doug
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Yahoo! News AP Headlines Wednesday January 13 1:36 AM ET
Some Mongolians Turn To Liquor
By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press Writer ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - It's 10:30 p.m., and Ulan Bator's drunks are howling. Out of their mind on cheap liquor, they rant and rattle the iron bars of a police cell. The stink of vodka and unwashed bodies hangs heavy in the air.
Some are professional men. Others are youngsters, caught for getting rowdy in bars. Many are unemployed or poor - the underclass that has suffered most from Mongolia's switch to democracy and a market economy.
In the nine years since popular protests helped end authoritarian communist rule, Mongolia has seen once empty shops fill with food and goods. An emerging private economy is creating new jobs. Restaurants and bars are springing up across Ulan Bator, the capital. Entrepreneurs cruise the city in their own cars and chat on mobile phones.
But for many people, change has been brutal. The closure and privatization of state firms put many out of work. Poverty has increased and a gap has opened between rich and poor. The psychological pressures of adapting to the vagaries of the market after seven decades of a state-commanded economy are taking their toll.
The result, police and legislators say, has been an outbreak of alcohol abuse in a country that traditionally espoused sobriety.
``This transition is very abrupt. There is a lot of unemployment. They have lost hope, so they seem to find comfort in drink,'' said Davaasuren, a police captain who, like many Mongolians, uses only one name.
``The transition has put too much pressure on people's mentality,'' he said in an interview occasionally interrupted by slurred yells from a drunken woman brought in by patrolling officers and left slumped against a wall of the police station.
Some longtime foreign residents say alcohol abuse seems less widespread than the toughest years immediately after Mongolia's switch to democracy, when drunks were often seen slumped on sidewalks.
But Davaasuren, who oversees a network of seven holding tanks across the capital for drunks picked up by police, thinks the problem is getting worse. Officers made 56,852 detentions for drunkenness in 1997, he said - or a little over 150 a day in a city of 650,000 people.
Theft, rape, murder and other crimes committed under the influence of alcohol are rising. ``Most of the crimes are committed by people who are drunk,'' Davaasuren said.
Mongolia's president, Natsagiin Bagabandi, said experts have identified alcohol abuse as ``a potential threat to the national security.'' He has appeared on TV and radio to appeal for moderation and plans to submit an amended law against alcoholism to parliament shortly.
Hashbat Hulan, a legislator who has called for a state monopoly on alcohol production to raise government revenues, said half of Mongolian adults drink too much.
``Mongolians are swimming in an ocean of vodka,'' the newspaper UB Post said in a recent article. ``It destroys families and orphans children.''
By 10:30 on a recent Friday night, the holding tank at the Chingeltei District Police Station held 28 people in a row of cells, each locked with a shiny new padlock. A man in a grimy coat slept outside on the floor of a reception area. One officer shoved a drunk hard as he led him to the cells. The man lost his unsteady footing on the slippery floor and slammed head first into a wood-paneled wall. Two other officers cuffed a drunk who was slow to undress in preparation for the cold shower sometimes given to sober people up.
Police who pick drunks up off the street probably save their lives. Winter temperatures plunge below zero, and officers sometimes stumble across people who have frozen to death, the captain said.
``It's very cold. It's very risky for the drunks,'' he said.
In summer, drunk people sometimes fall into rivers and drown, Davaasuren added. Part of the problem is bad alcohol. A genuine bottle of vodka costs the equivalent of $2.40, while smuggled alcohol and moonshine sell for as little as 35 cents a bottle.
After police bring people in, a doctor checks to see how drunk they are. Those at risk of alcohol poisoning, or injured from fights or frostbite, are taken to a hospital.
Those not considered a danger to themselves or others may be allowed to go home if relatives pick them up. The rest are stripped and left in cells with a blanket and tea or juices, often until morning.
People used to drink under communism, too, Davaasuren said. But back then, police would phone the offices of people they picked up, causing them to be demoted, lose pay or possibly their jobs.
These days, police prefer to take people home if they are not too drunk, the captain said.
As he spoke, another officer phoned the parents of two young men picked up after a bar owner called to complain.
``We were just drinking,'' one of the youths pleaded. ``Don't call my home,'' he said. ``I want to go home myself.''