SOVIET SUGAR CONSUMPTION UP AS HOME BREWING GROWS
  A sharp rise in Soviet sugar consumption
  since the start of the Kremlin's anti-alcohol drive indicates
  home brewing is costing the state 20 billion roubles in lost
  vodka sales, Pravda said.
      The Communist Party newspaper said sugar sales had
  increased by one mln tonnes a year, enough to be turned into
  two billion bottles of moonshine.
      At current vodka prices of 10 roubles a bottle, it said,
  this meant illicit alcohol consumption had reached the
  equivalent of 20 billion roubles a year, or annual revenues
  from vodka sales before the May 1985 anti-alchohol decree.
      "Official statistics show a reduction in consumption of
  vodka, but this is a deceptive statistic -- it does not count
  home-brew," Pravda said.
      "The epidemic first engulfed the villages and has now also
  firmly settled into cities, where the availability of natural
  gas, running water and privacy has made it much easier."
      Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched the anti-alcohol
  campaign shortly after taking office in March 1985 as a first
  step to improving Soviet economic performance, which had been
  seriously hurt by drunkenness among the working population.
  

