Critical issues of alcohol safety in the region

The paper presents results of the research into the economic and socio-demographic indicators associated with the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages. It discloses the analysis of the alcoholic beverage market structure in the Vologda Oblast. The authors have identified the threshold of the safe alcohol production volume in the region taking into account the World Health Organization standards of alcohol consumption and the share of illegally produced goods. The article states that the increased alcohol production contributes to the rise in tax revenues, but the state fiscal policy to regulate the alcoholic beverage market leads to an increase in the share of shadow turnover. The authors have calculated the economic loss connected with the illegal production of alcoholic beverages in the Vologda Oblast. The alcohol consumption is a destructive socio-demographic process and one of the threats to the health of the nation. Excessive alcohol consumption leads to alcohol dependence, regression of the society and increases the threat to national and economic security. The study reveals a direct correlation between the consumption of alcoholic beverages per capita and mortality rates in men and women of working age from the causes related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The study of the international experience to regulate alcohol consumption has showed the need to tighten state control in the sphere of production and turnover of alcoholic products. The conduct of the unified state alcohol policy substantiates the selection of the alcohol industry in the all-Russian classifier of economic activity types. The authors have elaborated the concept and conditions of alcoholic security from the point of view of economic growth and social development. The article substantiates the necessity to monitor alcohol safety indicators when considering the regional development. It presents the complex system of socio-economic and demographic indicators for its evaluation in dynamics.