in Iceland, the fight against alcohol addiction among young people is bearing fruit

At the end of the 1990s, Iceland woke up with a hangover: a study revealed that one in four teenagers smoked regularly, that nearly 20% of young people consumed cannabis and 40% abused alcohol.

The country then decides that alcoholism is a public health problem and launches a vast program. Among the first measures, the sale of alcohol is prohibited to young people under the age of 20.

7% of Icelanders already hospitalized for addictions

The National Center for the Fight against Addiction is confronted with this scourge: 7% of the 370,000 Icelanders have already been hospitalized there. Young people are welcomed there for the time to detoxify, before being taken care of by psychologists and educators.

“Since the year 2000, the number of teenagers we receive here has been constantly falling.“, confides the director of the center, who has seen the progress of Iceland on the figures of the establishment. Indeed, in twenty years, the number of admissions of minors has increased from 130 per year on average to about thirty . “Most people in Iceland now know that it is a health problem that requires treatment, she adds. So the patients came very early. And it’s worth it for a society to intervene early, because it’s a very serious disease, it’s the disease that kills young people the most.”

Excerpt from “Without alcohol, a better life!”, rebroadcast in “We, the Europeans” on March 2, 2023.

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