Poland: Roll Out the Bottle

Nowhere in Central Europe's vodka belt is there a harder-drinking nation than Poland, where doctors estimate that 1,500,000 of the country's 31 million people drink too much. Last year Poles managed to down 118 million quarts of vodka, wine and beer, or almost four quarts for every man, woman and child, a statistic that shows up in widespread worker absenteeism and hooliganism. Fed up, Poland's Red rulers have begun to crack down hard on alcohol, revoking 82 liquor licenses in Warsaw alone, which on top of a recent ban on liquor sales in many stores and outdoor kiosks has cut...