[Bjorn]

I'll refrain from answering the question as posed in the topic. As for the drinking bit I'm pretty sure that there is a strong correlation between alcohol "abuse" and which beverage is the drink of tradition.

I.e. countries where hard liquer is the traditional alcoholic beverage (russia, poland, nordic countries etc) in general have more problems than beerdrinking countries like britain or germany who in turn have more problems than winecountries like france, spain or italy.

It should also be noted that previously northern europe has been typicaly "binge drinking" and southern europe been "everyday drinking". However it seems like increased european integration is leeding to both becoming BOTH in the future.

/Bjorn