title: Price restrictions and other restrictions on alcohol availability in Denmark and Sweden: a historical perspective with implications for the current debate.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Current political debate in Sweden is mainly centred on lowering taxes on alcohol in order to "harmonize" prices with those in neighbouring countries, although the evidence of a negative association between prices and alcohol consumption is more than convincing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Total per capita consumption figures for twentieth-century Denmark and Sweden are utilized to illustrate the astonishing effects on consumption patterns of active government policies to restrict availability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Sweden. martin.lindstrom@smi.mas.lu.se
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindström
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history / Q000517:prevention & control; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013660:Taxes