Moscow—Visitors to Russia are often shocked at the ubiquity of inebriated people. It’s easy to spot the dirty, red-faced men of indeterminate age stumbling down the street, cigarettes drooping from their mouths. Teens hang out in small groups in city parks, nonchalantly passing bottles of beer back and forth. On the crowded subway, the smell of alcohol on commuters’ breaths is noticeable—even in the morning.
Of course, Russia doesn’t have an exclusive claim to alcoholism or drug addiction. In the United States, there are 56,000 chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous. Americans spend $20 billion a year at private treatment centers. But there is a specific eeriness about the problem in Russia. It is widespread, it is socially accepted, and it has transcended regimes—from the tsars, to the communists, to today’s hybrid of democracy and authoritarianism. Increasingly, however, officials are admitting that it poses a threat to the survival of the country...
