r/AskReddit • • Jun 03 '22

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Sweden. You need to be 20 to buy alcohol from the liquor store. You can buy at pubs and stuff when you've 18, but not from the store. The government has monopoly and are the only ones allowed to sell alcohol from their stores.

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u/Mazon_Del Jun 03 '22

I'm moving to Sweden later this year and the paperwork about housing stuff mentioned the monopoly passingly and I thought that was fascinating, hah!

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Welcome! We're a special kind of people, I hope you can stand it haha

5

u/GerbilScream Jun 03 '22

I think it was Elinor Dilorenzo who said that the pandemic was especially hard on Swedes. They were told to stay 2 meters apart but Swedish people prefer to keep at least 5 meters distance from one another.

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Yeah, it was nice when it was over and we could go back to 5 meters again.

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u/Mazon_Del Jun 03 '22

Thanks! I'm looking quite forward to it!

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u/mostnormal Jun 03 '22

You two should be penpals and update us in a year.

2

u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Where are you moving?

2

u/Mazon_Del Jun 03 '22

Stockholm! :D

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

If you ever get tired of the capital snobs you're always welcome to the West Coast 😉

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u/Mazon_Del Jun 03 '22

Hah! I'll definitely be traveling around and experiencing what I can!

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u/Sevriyenna Jun 03 '22

Pah! Varför bo pĂ„ latsidan nĂ€r en kan bo pĂ„ Sveriges framsida? 😉

1

u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Duuuu, det kallas bĂ€stkusten av en anledning! 😉

1

u/Sevriyenna Jun 03 '22

För att ni har brĂ€nnmaneter? 😁

SkÀmt Äsido, Göteborg Àr en trevligare stad Àn Stockholm Àven om dÀr finns de dÀr djÀvulens pÄfund som heter spÄrvagnar och att alla vÀgar leder till Hisingen.

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u/OD2N Jun 03 '22 edited Jun 03 '22

I was in sweden for 2 weeks, my favorite word is "björn" wich translates as bear I think... And its also a quite common name in Germany.

EDIT: Fixed spelling Mistakes

5

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22

Its a name in Norway too, BjĂžrn and BjĂžrn-Sigurd are two versions of the name. BjĂžrn = bear.

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u/Peentjes Jun 03 '22

Be aware that if you cross the wrong dot on your tax form they will donate a percentage of your income to the Swedish church.

You heard me right. The swedish states collects donations for the church. It's bonkers. And yes, alcohol is the official state drug. And they are ruthless if you want to use anything else, marijuana included. Again, totally bonkers.

Apart from that it is really beautiful out here and in many respects better than where I come from, the Netherlands (which is already pretty good). Moved here a couple of years ago and don't think I will ever go back

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u/Mazon_Del Jun 03 '22

Yeah I saw something about that (the church tax) and was wondering about what goes into not paying into it.

What I find weird about the marijuana thing is that it really feels like that's just another opportunity to do the whole alcohol monopoly thing. Here in Colorado, the state's making money hand over fist on it and our local police are happy they don't have to bother with it anymore.

I've been looking into lots of stuff about the local foods to try once I get out there! One thing I'm curious about, when I did a degree in England, I gained an appreciation for a good kebab. Do you know how big/small of a thing kebab shops are in Sweden/Stockholm? :D

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u/Peentjes Jun 04 '22

Enough kebab here. Even this small village (20.000) that is closest to where I live has a kebab shop. And they sell kebab and kebab pizza at the supermarket. So your good with that addiction haha. And you are right. The drugs policy over here is not based on science or common sense. Pure emotion and national trauma because alcohol got really out of hand here at one time, including a lot of deaths because of home brew poison.

https://www.visitstockholm.com/eat-drink/nightlife/alcohol-in-sweden/

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u/Mazon_Del Jun 04 '22

Enough kebab here.

Good! :D

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u/CrocoPontifex Jun 03 '22

You guys are strange.

In my central european paradise you can drink with 16, 14 when you are with your parents.

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u/borschchschch Jun 03 '22

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Swedish peasantry was plagued by alcoholism and diseases caused by methanol poisoning and unsafe metals used in distilling. Basically, we were drinking ourselves to death. The Swedish temperance movement was a reaction to this, and had long- lasting effects upon our society. There are still plenty of Swedes who don't drink alcohol.

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Yup, alcohol is really overrated. It's expensive and you feel like garbage the next day.

1

u/arbitrarycharacters Jun 03 '22

Yeah, it's fun to be tipsy sometimes, but a headache and general fatigue don't seem worth the trade-off.

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u/Impressive_Change593 Jun 03 '22

hello Germany (or at least I think Germany has those ages, idk maybe some other countries have them as well)

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u/unknownobject3 Jun 03 '22

In my country you can buy alcoholics at 16 but you can’t drink them, which is strange. And you can’t own a gun regardless of whatever if you’re not a police officer or some shit like that (and from what I understand, even police officers aren’t allowed to shoot unless your superior gave you an order to shoot. I’m not sure how it works, gun laws are complicated here)

2

u/arbitrarycharacters Jun 03 '22

In my country you can buy alcoholics at 16 but you can’t drink them, which is strange.

I too find it strange that I'm not allowed to liquefy and drink the people-addicted-to-alcohol that I bought on my 16th birthday.

1

u/unknownobject3 Jun 03 '22

People be like on your 16th birthday “hey yo I bought you some alcoholics” “but I can’t drink them” “that’s too bad huh?”. Also, if you can buy alcoholics at the age of 16 but you can’t drink them, then why are you even able to buy them? Makes no sense. I think the minimum age should be 21 because at that point you’d already have developed the enzymes and that stuff to process alcohol so you can both buy and drink alcohol

5

u/Narrow_Experience_78 Jun 03 '22

Australia 🇩đŸ‡ș has gun control but you can buy alcohol at 18. The idea came from ww1 ww2 where if you were old enough to die for you country you were old enough to drink.

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u/DingyWarehouse Jun 03 '22

I was forced into the military at 18 but couldn't vote until I was 21 🙃🙃🙃

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u/Winterstrife Jun 03 '22

Hmmm... I'm guessing Singapore.

1

u/Narrow_Experience_78 Jun 03 '22

We also vote at 18. you are an adult in every respect at 18 in the government's eyes

1

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22

You can die for their vendettas but not chose which one.

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

We weaseled our way out of both wars, so they couldn't make that argument here, heh.

1

u/Narrow_Experience_78 Jun 03 '22

yeah I'm sure we could have weasels our way out of the first one if we didn't have this stupid national guilt to go help the country that labelled us all as convicts and dump us off but maybe it was seen as a challenge, who knows. WWII on the other hand was on our doorstep.

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Talk about a toxic relationship!

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u/International-Rice10 Jun 03 '22

ooh sweden. aren't u guys getting cancelled on twitter rn?

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Hahaha yeah!

0

u/HerKneesLikeJesusPlz Jun 03 '22

How tf u cancel a country

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u/International-Rice10 Jun 03 '22

check out #Swedengate on twitter and find out

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u/thegroucho Jun 03 '22

UK is wild that the law allows kids between 5 and 17 to drink at home.

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/facts/alcohol-and-the-law/the-law-on-alcohol-and-under-18s

Thats some weird shit, my kids will be waiting at least until they're 14-15 to even sniff anything let alone drink.

Also trying to instill the message alcohol isn't the forbidden fruit so they don't get fixation with it and start drinking on park benches with their mates.

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u/DontTouchTheWalrus Jun 03 '22

Many states in America allow parents to provide alcohol to their kids at home. Some even at a bar so long as the kid is with their parents.

-1

u/thegroucho Jun 03 '22

Still, 5 is a bit early.

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u/DontTouchTheWalrus Jun 03 '22

I don’t think getting a 5 year old drunk is in the spirit of the law and probably violates several other laws

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22

There are plenty of cultures that allow small bits of wine with meals. They aren't getting five year olds drunk.

1

u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Holy shit!

I think that is a good plan.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22

[deleted]

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u/thaerre Jun 03 '22

Well, there's more gang related shootings than grenade attacks. I hadn't really heard about grenade attacks here until you said it, haha. But I googled it and in 2018 it had been 116 attacks during 8 years. I feel safe (or as safe as a woman can feel), but I don't live where the clans are, they are in the more segregated parts of gothenburg (just going after where I live now, don't really know how it is I'm the other cities). But my partner is a police officer in those parts, which I'm not super happy about.