A quick drink, every now and again

This story staggers me - the extent of alcoholism in Russia.

Apparently 3,500 people die a month in Russia from alcohol poisoning. People drink de-icer, brake fluid and window cleaning fluids. That must be when you know your life has turned to complete and total shite - when you have run out of the vodka, can't afford a new bottle, and decide now is the time to crack open the brake fluid. I cannot envisage a life like that, and hope no-one I know ever lives a life like that.

Sky news goes on to describe one of the victims of drinking a cheap vodka that is actually de-icer:

"His doctor says his addiction was so desperate that when they gave him an injection and swabbed his arm with alcohol, he put the cotton wool into his mouth to suck the spirit from it."

Again, I cannot understand, from my narrow, parochial view point how someone could ever get themselves into that state. To have to suck alcohol from a cotton wool swab in front of the doctors who are trying to help you with your crippling, fatal alcohol addiction. It is not the lack of dignity or my incredulity that anyone would ever want to suck medicinal alcohol from cotton wool that really gets to me, although both are really striking. It is the sheer, raw desperation of the guy that I cannot get my head around. It is like a real-life, living, breathing (for now - his illness is fatal) Father Jack - except, inevitably, it is not funny when it is a real person.

It is next to impossible to work out what Russia can do about the national alcohol problem. Alcohol really is part of the national heritage in Russia - during World War Two, the Russian army was paid in vodka, for example. And as Sky News notes:

"In Russia many people view beer as a soft drink. In fact there is a saying here that beer without vodka is like money on the wind."

Beer as a soft drink is a scary concept. I like the odd beer, and can confirm from the headache I have the morning after consuming a couple of pints (plus) of beer that it is most definitely not a soft drink. The Russians are apparently calling for a national debate on alcohol - ignoring the NuLabour lanaguage at play here, I think more than a debate is needed. As far as I can see there is a direct link between the terrible poverty in Russia and the crippling alcoholism. If you are turning to brake fluid for a drink, there can't be a lot else in your life to live for.

But, this wouldn't be The Appalling Strangeness if I didn't add a glib, sarcastic and slightly unpleasant aside to round of the post. So I give you this - according to our government, we have a drink problem in this country. Well, those damned Ruskies are streets ahead of us. In the Cold War, we had the Missile Gap. Now the Cold War is over, why is no-one talking about a "binge-drinking gap"?