We’ve talked before about the prevalence of the “strong highball” (酎ハイ; chuuhai) in Japan. The drinks come in various, sticky-sweet flavors and pack a 9% alcoholic punch. Doctors and addiction specialists in Japan have been raising alarms recently about their addictiveness and the ease of inebriation they offer. But one of Japan’s most prominent addiction researchers raised the stakes recently with a controversial Facebook post that has people talking.
“Even Illegal Drugs Don’t Mess You Up Like This”
The post’s author was Matsumoto Toshihiko (松本俊彦). Matsumoto is far from an alarmist crank. As the head of research into substance abuse at Japan’s National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, he knows a thing or two about addiction. And a few weeks ago, he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinion of Japan’s strong chuuhai products, such as the popular Strong Zero:
We should regulate Strong Zero like a dangerous drug. I often half-seriously consider this. I’ve seen lots of people in my clinical experience who lose control and get violent after drinking three 500ml cans. Even illegal drugs don’t mess you up like that.
The drink is ultimately more than a drink; it’s artificial sweeteners mixed with ethyl alcohol – a drug. And because it’s easy to drink like juice, even people who don’t normally drink, and people who say “I can’t drink” can chug it. What will happen to people like that who absorb something with more alcohol than regular beer at such a fast pace? For alcohol, which has been called the worst drug in human existence, this is a dangerous method of absorption that maximizes its damage.
Alcoholic drinks should taste like alcohol. Moreover, when considered from a standpoint of public health, the alcohol tax should go up according to a drink’s alcohol level. But manufacturers are cornered by the country’s see-sawing strategy of tax collection, bringing us to this assuredly strange state.
Fears of Alcohol’s Connection to Suicide
Matsumoto’s Facebook post was shared over 800 times in the ensuing weeks and became a topic of discussion on other social media platforms, such as Twitter. Buzzfeed Japan’s Iwanaga Naoko snagged an interview with the researcher and asked what led him to make his post[1].
Matsumoto told Iwanaga that some of his patients have embraced Strong Zero after they’ve kicked harder drugs. Because the strong-style drinks are so easy to drink, many former addicts find themselves simply replacing their illegal drug addiction with a legal one. And more than a few patients, he said, end up re-lapsing with their original poison while smashed on Strong.
Matsumoto also cites the connection between alcohol use and suicide – a subject he’s researched and written about before. He cites Finland, which cut its suicide rate by 30 percent after raising the country’s alcohol tax. “That’s why,| Matsumoto says, “when Japan was shaping its strategy for suicide prevention, there was talk about using Finland as a model.”
In the end, Matsumoto isn’t calling for a ban on alcoholic beverages – that never works, he says. But he does call upon his country to adopt a tax strategy that protects public health.
But Will Anything Change?
Lacking any hard data, it’s hard to say if there’s any popular will around raising tax rates on strong chuuhai. From a casual reading of Twitter comments, however, a lot of people seem to agree with Matsumoto’s take. Even some drinkers acknowledged feeling “uneasy” about strong chuuhai and agreed with Matsumoto’s call for higher taxes.
As Matsumoto notes, however, the real problem is political. The Abe government’s currently angling to pad the public coffers with gambling revenue. Will they really do anything that would dampen alcohol sales? It’s highly unlikely.
Sources
[1] ストロング系チューハイに薬物依存研究の第一人者がもの申す 「違法薬物でもこんなに乱れることはありません」. Buzzfeed Japan
