DANISH ALCOHOL - FALL 1991

Attitudes about alcohol are very different in Denmark than they are in the United States. The legal age for drinking in bars is 18. Identification is never checked, and younger people are often served. It is considered acceptable for teenagers to begin drinking beer at age 16. However, alcohol is expensive in bars.

There is no age limit for buying alcohol in grocery stores and tobacco (snack) shops. It is "presumed" that children or teenagers buying alcohol are buying it for their parents. In stores, beer costs about a third of what it costs in bars. So alcohol is easily available to anyone who wants it.

It is legal to drink alcohol in public, so it is common to see people drinking beer almost anywhere -- on the streets, in parks, in theatre lobbies, and church bazaars. It is even sold to parents at elementary school events. About the only place you don't see people drinking beer is on buses. There are also rules against drinking on commuter trains, but they are not enforced. The authorities would rather have people drink on the trains than in their cars.

There are 5 million people in Denmark, and they consume about 6 million bottles of beer on a typical day. On a hot day, they consume 9 million bottles. On the other hand, consumption of hard liquor is relatively low, because it is heavily taxed. The two major breweries, Tuborg and Carlsberg, have two-thirds of their stock owned by a foundation which supports art museums and cultural events in Denmark.

While it is common to see people drinking beer, it is unusual to see anyone acting drunk or disorderly. That would be very un-Danish. The Danes pride themselves on being able to hold their alcohol.

Unfortunately, it only takes two or three beers to impair your driving ability, even when your behavior is under control. As a result, drunk driving is a serious problem in Denmark, as it is in America. Danish authorities respond to it decisively -- about 30% of the people in prison in Denmark are there for drunk driving. You can also be fined for riding your bicycle while drunk!

To help combat drunk driving, the bars in Denmark stay open until 5 AM, when the commuter trains and regular buses start running again. (They stop running at midnight). In addition, there are special night buses which run every hour all night. At 2:30 in the morning, Radhuspladsen (City Hall square) is filled with happy Danes boarding buses which run in all directions.

Extra trains and buses run on Fridays in December. That is when employers have their annual Christmas parties, called Julefrokost (Yule lunch). These "lunches" typically run from noon until midnight. There is a special advertising campaign to encourage people to ride the train or bus after these parties and on New Years Eve.

In sharp contrast are the alcohol laws in nearby Sweden. There the legal age for drinking is 20. Wine and hard liquor are only available in state liquor stores. So every weekend young Swedes ride the ferries to Denmark to get drunk. As a result, Danes have the impression that Sweden has a worse alcohol problem than Denmark.