Will culture withstand vodka drinking?

The Donetsk Oblast Department of Statistics published statistical data on the quantity of alcohol drunk by its residents and the harm it causes. The numbers are unpleasantly surprising. Last year, merely through the oblast’s trading network, nine million liters of pure alcohol were sold. An average Donetsk family spends 46 hryvnias on alcohol per month — more than on recreation and culture (43 hryvnias), or such mass consumption products as butter (37 hryvnias). As a result, 1,500 people died from alcoholism in Donetsk region in 2009, much more than the number of work- and traffic-related casualties together.

The oblast narcological clinic has reported to The Day that there are over 90,000 “official alcoholics” registered in the system’s special health centers, whereas the number of those who do not undergo any treatment is several times higher. On a daily basis, doctors register 30 to 40 heavy cases of alcohol psychosis, with vodka hallucinations conquering new age categories, so that both very old people and teenagers find themselves on hospital beds.

Incidentally, according to an anonymous survey held by several civic organizations in Donetsk, on the eve of the new school year 98 percent of girls have been drinking alcohol on a regular basis since the age of 14. They get involved in sexual relationships one or two years later.