@Villain: Is everyone in Finland alcoholic? I guess people there drink a lot in order to bear the cold...
Well, that excuse was valid perhaps a hundred years ago - nowadays we've got heating, you know. But you are right in the sense that the Finnish alcohol-culture is rather extreme, and a large percentage of the population suffers from alcohol-related (or nowadays also drug-related) problems. The stereotypical Finn does not drink to relax or to socialize - he drinks to get damn drunk.
For those wondering how this relates to me, I work with young criminal offenders aged 14-21, most of whom (practically all minus the few youngest kids) have serious problems with alcohol, drugs, or both. Many have also mental trouble (depressions, personality disorders, etc). Here's a link to our project's website, although it doesn't seem like it has been updated in a while (it's in both Finnish and English, but you need to scroll down a little to find the English text):
http://www.pomo-project.com
The project ends this year, and I'm planning to shift my focus
p) to pre-emptive work with a bit younger kids (13-17), simply because it is easier to affect their lives before their problems get too deep. We've had the best results in this project with underage kids, and even though I feel there's a need for this kind of work all across the age-brackets, I believe I'm personally at my best with the younger boys.
-Villain
EDIT: Bah, it seems the website sucks (I never took a look at it before) - don't bother searching any information there. If you're curious about something, just ask me.