, Columnist
Europe Needs to Cut Back on the Booze
A smart alcohol policy doesn’t price weaker drinks out of people’s reach.
Europeans love to drink.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Europeans are the heaviest drinkers in the world, according to a new World Health Organization report. Alcohol killed 291,000 people in 30 European countries in 2016, more than 10 times the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents in the European Union that year. The U.S. opioid epidemic only kills about a quarter as many people every year.
But consumption and mortality levels don’t tell the whole story. The WHO report sheds light on how alcohol problems can be mitigated with smart policies that drive cultural change.