People love alcohol. Its one of those things that everyone does world wide. Drinking alcohol transcends race, religion, and social standing. When lawmakers ban alcohol, people just find ways around it. History in the United States has shown us that prohibition doesn’t work. When the government decided to outlaw alcohol in the 1920s, all they got was an increase in bootlegging and organized crime. People still drank as much, they just had to hide it; About a decade later, alcohol was made legal and everything went back to normal.
Today, Iran is one of the few countries in the world that prohibits its residents from using alcohol recreationally. The conservative Islamist government is pretty strict when it comes to its alcohol laws. Police raids are common, and people found drinking face severe penalties and jail time. Despite the risks, drinking is still pretty widespread. In fact theres an estimated 200,000 alcoholics in the country. Many of them cant get help because they’re not supposed to be drinking in the first place.
Drinking is more widespread among the wealthy, since they have easier access to it. All they have to do is call someone to have liquor delivered to their homes. Contraband liquor is commonly imported from neighboring turkey, or from Russia. Other people find ways to make their own alcohol. Many make wine or moonshine in their homes. Some people even buy industrial alcohol sold in stores to drink, which like moonshine can be dangerous to consume. The young people are the ones who drink the most, feeling like they need to get away from all the restrictions their government imposes.