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How did Iceland reduce drug and alcohol abuse by its youth from 42% to 5%?

March 26, 2026/

In the late 1990s, Iceland had one of the worst teenage substance abuse rates in Europe. Nearly half of all 16-year-olds had been drunk in the past month. Education campaigns weren’t working. Warnings weren’t working. So they tried something completely different.
Research suggested teenagers weren’t addicted to substances, they were addicted to what substances did to their brain chemistry. The fix wasn’t punishment or education. It was replacement.
Iceland’s response was to subsidise sport, music, art, dance and social activities on a massive scale. They encouraged parent-child time. They gave teenagers somewhere to be.
Within twenty years, youth drunkenness had fallen from 42% to 5%.

This is the Short Explainer of how Iceland saved its youth.


Click here to read the story.

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