Lithuania managed to cut alcohol consumption – do its policies work?

Alcohol consumption in Lithuania has fallen drastically in recent years, studies suggest. While Lithuanians remain relatively heavy drinkers, experts say the restrictive alcohol control policies are working and should stay in place.

Seven years ago, Lithuania was the leading country in the world in terms of alcohol consumption. Research shows that drinking has fallen significantly since then.

“Of course, we are still in the top ten, but in terms of the time it has taken us to reduce alcohol consumption by almost 4-5 litres [...] in 3-4 years – international organisations are seeing Lithuania’s contribution,” said Gražina Belian, head of the Department of Drugs and Alcohol.

According to Mindaugas Štelemėkas, head of the Health Research Institute, the reduction in alcohol consumption has been driven by the government’s alcohol control policies. These include price control through excise duties; limiting hours of sale – one cannot buy alcohol in shops and supermarkets after 20:00 and after 15:00 on Sundays – and a total ban on alcohol advertising.

“Lithuania has made these decisions over a short period of time, which makes it a kind of natural experiment that is really showing great results in reducing the huge alcohol consumption problem that existed in Lithuania before,” he said.

However, the situation is far from ideal. For every person over the age of 15 in Lithuania, consumption is still 11.2 litres of pure alcohol per year. Therefore, the restrictive alcohol control policies must be maintained, insists Štelemėkas.

“We should not discuss loosening some restrictions on alcohol, as there are initiatives to increase the selling time on Sundays, for example, although our research clearly shows that the effect is positive,” he said.

Research also shows that since 2018, when restrictions on selling time were put in place, Lithuania has seen not only a drop in alcohol-related male mortality but also a change in the mortality calendar: fewer men die on Mondays.

“Mondays had a higher mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases because people would go out, drink over the weekend and then go to work, they’d be stressed, under physical strain and have health problems,” said sociologist Daumantas Stumbrys.

These trends of higher mortality on Mondays have been observed for the last two decades, but have recently seen a reversal, supposedly precisely because of shorter alcohol selling hours on Sundays.

“These trends are typical of many post-Soviet countries, where there is a harmful pattern of binge drinking, in other words, where people drink a relatively large amount of alcohol in one sitting,” said Stumbrys.