History
Historically, Sweden was a poor country with a comparably low standard of living. Although it is a member of the vodka belt and has a tradition of wide spread tobacco use, other drugs were rarely used until the mid-20th century. The 19th century saw the rise of the temperance movement, alongside the free churches and the labour movement. State alcohol rationing, state monopoly on retail stores in alcohol, and temperance boards in the municipalities were introduced around the First World War. This decreased alcohol use to a level that was low through the 1930s, during the world wide economic crises. The temperance boards continued to exist after alcohol rationing ended in 1955.
Read more about this topic: Drug Policy Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)