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Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

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Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#151

Post by 8fGTBjZxBcHq »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #105
C19is20 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would preventing alcoholism be bad for average iq?

Brain needs challenges and stimulation to develop; when people are taken care of, average IQ of society decreased over time. If you check the numbers there are several metrics where we regressed in the past hundreds of years, including reaction time, testosterones production, fertility etc. Good times create mediocre people and the times were better and better in the past centuries, while people got more and more med…

> Good times create mediocre people

This is not even remotely true I don't know what you're basing this on.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#152

Post by limiting_factor »

gonehome wrote: post #139
giantg2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.

The US has a wild variety of drink laws that vary by state. Many states have government run stores, some states allow beer and wine at grocery stores, but liquor must be sold in a separate store. Some states have laws that ban sales after 8pm, some 2am. Utah is the worst because they limit the alcohol percentage in beer (Mormons don't drink and pushed for these laws) so the companies have to make special shittier Uta…

>I don't know if there are any states that don't have open container laws

Louisiana is one. Most people associate New Orleans with drinking in public, but I believe there's no statewide law against it.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#153

Post by httpsterio »

In case anyone is interested in Finland, a neighboring country's alcohol policies:

Alcohol has 1.2 to 80% ABV, anything less is classified as low in alcohol and different rules apply. Anything above isn't meant for consumption.

5.5% ABV drinks are the strongest you can buy in a normal grocery store. It used to be 4.5% and the drinks had to be fermented, no liquor blends for example were allowed. These days they're allowed.

Anything above 5.5% can only be bought from the state run monopoly, Alko, or ordered, which in itself is a complex issue and Finland is breaking the EU directives currently when it comes to that.

Anyone over the age of 18 can buy alcohol up to 22% ABV, you have to be over the age of 20 to buy stronger. Selling >22% stuff to an 18 year old is illegal.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#154

Post by dehrmann »

httpsterio wrote: post #153

In case anyone is interested in Finland, a neighboring country's alcohol policies: Alcohol has 1.2 to 80% ABV, anything less is classified as low in alcohol and different rules apply. Anything above isn't meant for consumption. 5.5% ABV drinks are the strongest you can buy in a normal grocery store. It used to be 4.5% and the drinks had to be fermented, no liquor blends for example were allowed. These days they're al…

One of the first Swedish words I learned was Systembolaget, the state run liquor store. I you want something with more than 3.5% alcohol, they're you're store, as long as you have the foresight to show up before they close at 6 PM (1 PM on Saturdays). The booze cruise to Finland was the other place people get alcohol.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#155

Post by alistairSH »

gregkerzhner wrote: post #118
alistairSH wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that the quotas are very low 24 bottles of liquor, 6 bottles of fortified wines, nearly 300 cans of beer, and unlimited wine annually is low? I'd hate to be the liver of anybody drinking that much.

Annually? Everything sounds high when you say it annually! Looking at the numbers on a smaller scale, if you don't count the unlimited wine, the monthly quota works out to be about 2.2 drinks / night - about 1.5 shouts of liquor and less than 1 light beer a night. Thats a pretty resonable amount of alcohol to consume - just slightly higher than the 14 drinks / week maximum that many health authorities recommend. How…

Two per day is not quite what the US government recommends:

Adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink or to drink in moderation by limiting intake to 2 drinks or less in a day for men and 1 drink or less in a day for women, when alcohol is consumed. Drinking less is better for health than drinking more.

2/day is a recommended upper bound, applied on days where alcohol is consumed. Not the same as "you can drink 2/day year -round without consequence."

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#156

Post by pmiller2 »

cat199 wrote: post #78
pmiller2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how the only other thing I can think of to do with buckets of vodka in 19th century Poland is burn it, I'd probably go with drinking it, too. I'm not even sure burning it would work out well, either.

high proof alcohol works great in a lamp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_burner

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I was thinking more of burning it in an engine or for heat.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#157

Post by qwerty456127 »

Clewza313 wrote: post #67
thanatosmin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK Svalbard is weird in both immigration laws and a distinct tax structure from Norway. My guess is it has to do with tax avoidance schemes rather than consumption.

Svalbard's legal status is deeply weird. It's administered by Norway, but not subject to a lot of Norwegian law, and people from all Svalbard Treaty signatories including the US can legally rock up and work and stay as long as they like. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Treaty

This is not weird, this is awesome. There should be more places like this.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#158

Post by GekkePrutser »

gonehome wrote: post #139
giantg2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.

The US has a wild variety of drink laws that vary by state. Many states have government run stores, some states allow beer and wine at grocery stores, but liquor must be sold in a separate store. Some states have laws that ban sales after 8pm, some 2am. Utah is the worst because they limit the alcohol percentage in beer (Mormons don't drink and pushed for these laws) so the companies have to make special shittier Uta…

> I don't know if there are any states that don't have open container laws - which is too bad, drinking PIMs in the park in the UK was great fun, and beers outside talking to people is a nice part of the London pub culture that would go well in American cities

That's a big thing in Spain too, they even have a word for it (botellón). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botell%C3%B3n

Here there's a big square where people sit in the sun during the day in small groups and drink.. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#159

Post by GekkePrutser »

marvin wrote: post #84
Quarrelsome wrote: post #32

Anyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent) suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being contributing factors.

I can't speak for Svalbard specifically, but Norway in general has a long history of heavily taxing and regulating alcohol. Alcohol stronger than beer can only be purchased at the state-run "wine monopoly", alcohol percentage stronger than 60% classified as narcotics and illegal, opening hours for alcohol sale (beer included) are mandated to be much shorter than for stores in general, no alcohol sales allowed on publ…

To be fair, excessive alcohol consumption (as in alcoholism) is very destructive.

However I don't think it's fair to punish everyone for this. Many people have no issues limiting their alcohol and a once-in-a-while binge is not an issue.

But anyway I would never want to go near Svalbard, wayyy too cold for me anyway :) And I couldn't cope with 3 months of continuous darkness.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#160

Post by GekkePrutser »

mortenjorck wrote: post #111

For a sense of scale, the Svalbard archipelago has a population of about 3,000. Antarctica's seasonal peak is around 5,000.

For another sense of scale, Svalbard has 61,022 km^2 and Antarctica 14,200,000 km^2.

So even when Antarctica might have more people at times, its population density is still way lower.

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