Drinking policy or a political drink? Illegal alcohol in the Swedish press

Abstract

During the last 10 years the Swedish tradition of restrictive alcohol policy has been seriously threatened. One of the most important causes of change has been Sweden's entry into the European Union. Entrance into the EU gave rise to arguments for consumer's rights and free trade. Swedish alcohol policy was questioned both with ideological arguments and on practical grounds. The alcohol policy was expected to be weakened in several ways by harmonization of taxes, demonopolization, increased import quotas and also illegal imports due to reduced boarder controls between EU-countries. At the end of the 1990s, illegal alcohol (smuggled or illegally homeproduced alcohol) became an important factor in the alcohol policy field: in 1999 the Minister of Health and Social Affairs stated that the fight against illegal alcohol is the most important issue for Swedish alcohol policy. The aim of this study was to explore how illegal alcohol was described in 10 Swedish newspapers during 1990, 1994 and 1999. The number of articles increased dramatically during the 1990s. In the first year most articles were found in the local press, but at the end of the period most of the articles were published in the nationwide press, indicating the greater importance of the topic. In 1990 and 1994 illegal alcohol was presented as a future problem if Sweden adapted the wrong alcohol policy. In the later years it was presented as an existing fact to which Sweden has to adjust. It was used as an argument for a wide range of liberal proposals. There was also a change when it came to the actors in the debate as representatives of different sectors of the alcohol industry entered the field. One of the most interesting features is that the industry and the public authorities together started a media campaign against illegal alcohol with a focus on the connection between illegal alcohol and organized crime syndicates. This is also an example of how the perceived problems with illegal alcohol depend very much on the interests of the actors. We argue that the focus on illegal alcohol can be understood as an example of the use of a good enemy. Several actors, including the public authorities, have had an interest in the fact that illegal alcohol is viewed as a serious problem. For the alcohol industry it is a way to combat a competitor, and for public authorities it can be a way of legitimizing changes in alcohol policy which they had to make anyway. Factors like this seem to have been very important in the formulation of illegal alcohol as a problem.