Administrative-legal measures in the fight against alcoholism in Russia: history and modernity

The goal of this research is the formation of conceptual foundation for administrative-legal regulation of fight against alcoholism, cognate with the development of practical recommendations aimed at increasing the efficiency of legal measures of overcoming negative consequences caused by consumption of alcohol beverages. The relevance of this work is determined by severity of the problems related to consumption of alcohol, and as a result, degradation of population, increase in mortality rates, destruction of moral and ethical values of the people, and aggravation of criminogenic situation. The Russian government has always used the administrative-legal measures to combat alcoholism. The object of this research is the social relations in historical retrospective that emerge, develop and transform under the influence of administrative-legal measures of combating alcoholism. The subject is administrative-legal measures of the government aimed at fight against alcoholism. The comparative-legal method allowed juxtaposing the legal measures implemented in prerevolutionary, Soviet and current legislation. The scientific novelty consists in articulation of the problem underlining the need for scientific analysis of administrative-legal measures of combating alcoholism at the domestic level and recommendations on its optimization. The major dilemma of administrative alcohol policy is that one the one hand, excessive liberalization of the consumption of alcohol beverages is the cause of alcoholization of population, while on the other – tightening of control measure leads to the increase of bootlegging, causing the drop in state revenue, as well as worsening of somatic and psychological health of the people.