Cost of alcoholism in Lodz - city budget and family costs

Every business selling alcohol in Lodz - a shop, bar or restaurant - pays the city an annual permit fee. The amount depends on alcohol turnover in the previous year. In 2022 these permit fees brought Lodz PLN 18.59 million. In 2024 they brought PLN 21.85 million, up 17.5% in two years. Over the same period the number of families receiving MOPS social assistance because of alcoholism rose from 874 to 1,113 - up 27% in a single year. They rise together because the city earns from alcohol sales while its residents pay for them. Just not with the same money.

In brief

• Alcohol permit fees 2024: PLN 21.85M in execution (109% of plan), PLN 3.26M more than in 2022.
• City alcohol prevention spending 2024: PLN 17.65M in total (main prevention budget + multi-year lines + local policy), up 24% on 2022.
• Alcoholism in social assistance (MOPS): 1,113 families and 1,361 individuals in 2023 - up 27% year on year.
• Blue Cards in Lodz 2023: 1,629 new procedures, 5,646 working-group meetings, 156 prosecutor referrals.
• Municipal Alcohol Commission (MKRPA) salaries: PLN 1.22M in 2024 (82.96% of the PLN 1.5M plan).
• 5,400 - the cap on alcohol sales permits in Lodz set by the 4 July 2024 city council resolution.
• Social cost of alcoholism for Poland: PLN 93.3 billion per year (PARPA, 2020 data), of which about PLN 1.60 billion falls proportionally on Lodz.

2022-2024 budget: the city earns more, spends differently

Revenues from alcohol permit fees are rising systematically - a mix of inflation and real growth of alcohol turnover in the city. At the same time, spending on alcoholism prevention has shifted between budget items. Less now goes to the main alcohol prevention programme - the Municipal Programme for the Prevention and Solving of Alcohol Problems (MPPiRPA), recorded in Polish budget classification as "chapter 85154" - while two new lines have appeared: the Multi-Year Financial Plan (WPF) for 2022-2025 and "local multi-sector policy". In practice the city has spread the funds across several titles, while the total prevention budget has grown.

Category	2022	2024	Change
Alcohol permit fees (revenue)	PLN 18,594,510.94	PLN 21,849,993.72	+17.5%
Main alcohol prevention budget (MPPiRPA, chapter 85154)	PLN 14,133,921.78	PLN 12,609,298.22	-10.8%
Multi-year programmes 2022-2025 (WPF)	-	PLN 1,342,614.00	new line
Local multi-sector policy (chapter 85154)	-	PLN 3,696,507.00	new line
Total alcohol prevention spending (estimate)	~PLN 14.13M	~PLN 17.65M	+24%

Sources: City of Lodz budget execution reports 2022 (table 6) and 2024 (pp. 507-509).

Where does the money actually go in 2024? PLN 10.88M went as grants to the Municipal Centre for Therapy and Health Prevention (MCTiPZ) and other city-run independent public healthcare facilities (in Polish: SPZOZ). The Municipal Alcohol Commission (MKRPA) paid PLN 1.22M in member salaries (82.96% of the planned PLN 1.5M) and PLN 11,600 in court fees. Senior Microgrants and the "Senior Bag" programme consumed PLN 218,000 together, while health research into addiction took PLN 55,000 (68.75% of plan, with the rest returned).

Commission salaries - a touchy local subject

The salaries of Municipal Alcohol Commission members have been a topic in Dziennik Lodzki and Express Ilustrowany for years. In 2023 the commission's budget stood at PLN 1.28M, of which PLN 1.2M went to member salaries - often active politicians. In 2024 the figure dipped slightly (PLN 1.22M) but still absorbs nearly 10% of the entire main alcohol prevention budget.

It is a structural paradox of Polish alcohol policy. The Sobriety Education Act requires permit-fee revenues to fund prevention, but does not specify how much may go to administration and commission fees. In practice, in most Polish municipalities a double-digit share of these funds is consumed by the process itself rather than by programmes for addicts and their families.

A terminology note. In Polish press and local-government jargon the alcohol-sales permit fee is often called "korkowe" or "kapslowe". The same word is used in the hospitality sector with an entirely different meaning: the fee a restaurant or wedding venue charges a guest for bringing in their own alcohol. This article uses the unambiguous, full name: the alcohol sales permit fee (recorded in the city budget as § 048 chapter 85154).

Alcoholism at MOPS: families up 27% in one year

The 2023 Lodz State-of-the-City Report contains figures that deserve attention. Between 2022 and 2023 the number of families receiving MOPS social benefits because of alcoholism rose from 874 to 1,113. The number of individuals in those families grew from 1,104 to 1,361.

Category	2022	2023	YoY change
Alcoholism - families	874	1,113	+27%
Alcoholism - individuals	1,104	1,361	+23%
Drug addiction - families	134	192	+43%
Drug addiction - individuals	162	245	+51%
Domestic violence - families	81	117	+44%
Domestic violence - individuals	237	303	+28%

Source: Lodz State-of-the-City Report 2023, Table 2.

Such a one-year jump is not an artefact of "better reporting". It is a genuine increase in families in crisis. In the same year 1,629 Blue Card procedures were opened in Lodz, Working Groups held 5,646 meetings, 156 cases went to the prosecutor, and 80 perpetrators entered corrective-educational programmes.

Nationwide data show that in 45-82% of Blue Card interventions the perpetrator is under the influence of alcohol. Applied to Lodz's 1,629 cards that means alcohol stands behind 730-1,336 of them every year.

What MCTiPZ does - the backbone of public treatment in Lodz

The Municipal Centre for Therapy and Health Prevention of Bl. Rafal Chylinski is the largest public facility dealing with addiction in Lodz. The 2023 Lodz State-of-the-City Report gives concrete numbers.

• 3,379 diagnostic consultations for people with alcohol problems
• 858 people in specialist alcohol counselling
• 540 transports of severely intoxicated persons
• 3,500 sanitary-hygienic procedures (mostly the sobering-up station and homeless individuals in crisis)
• 137 hours of group psychotherapy for families with alcohol problems
• 28 diagnostic consultations for drug addiction and 927 therapeutic consultations for drug-addicted patients
• 908 individual psychotherapy sessions for families affected by drug addiction

These numbers have a second layer. 540 transports of intoxicated persons means on average 1.5 interventions per day. 3,500 sanitary-hygienic procedures is about 10 a day. Over 4,000 people pass through MCTiPZ in a year - often repeatedly, not just once.

Municipal Police: 1,050 alcohol interventions in 2023

The State-of-the-City Report also covers Municipal Police data that usually fly under the radar. In 2023 the Lodz Municipal Police carried out 1,050 interventions for drinking alcohol in public places, issued 415 fines for drinking itself and 154 for attempting to drink. It inspected 7,725 premises, 623 of them in the "zero zone" around schools, churches and parks.

7,725 inspections a year comes to about 21 inspections per day - logistics comparable to a large sanitary inspection system. The scale shows that enforcing the Sobriety Education Act is a daily municipal task rather than a one-off campaign.

The Lodz alcohol market: 5,400 permits, 623 near schools

On 4 July 2024 the Lodz City Council adopted a resolution setting the maximum number of alcohol sales permits:

• 5,400 permits in total: 3,600 for catering + 1,800 for retail
• By product: 1,900 for beer, 1,800 for wine and 4.5-18% spirits, 1,700 for spirits above 18%
• Minimum distance from churches and schools: 50 metres

For context: the entire Lodz voivodeship had 30,882 valid permits in 2022 (KCPU-G1), so the city of Lodz accounts for roughly a fifth of the regional market.

After months of public consultations (launched in May 2025), the City Council passed resolution No. XIX/535/25 on 2 July 2025 introducing night-time prohibition. Since 17 October 2025, a ban on alcohol sales between 22:00 and 6:00 applies on seven central districts - Katedralna, Srodmiescie-Wschod, Gorniak, Baluty-Doly, Baluty-Centrum, Stare Polesie and Stary Widzew. The restriction covers only off-premise sales (shops, petrol stations, retail outlets); restaurants, bars and pubs with on-premise permits may still serve alcohol at night. Gdansk already has such a rule in place and according to Rzeczpospolita it is producing measurable effects: fewer police interventions and double-digit year-on-year drops in Municipal Police fines.

PLN 93.3 billion - what alcoholism costs Poland

The most recent PARPA report (2021, data for 2020) puts the total socio-economic cost of harmful alcohol consumption in Poland at PLN 93.3 billion, or 3.45% of GDP. Rzeczpospolita forecasts the total will pass PLN 100 billion in 2026.

Breakdown (source: Puls Medycyny, PARPA data):

• PLN 84 billion - losses from premature mortality
• PLN 574 million - hospitalisation for alcohol-related diseases
• PLN 389 million - police, prosecution and courts
• PLN 247.5 million - NHF drug reimbursement (2020)
• PLN 2 billion - lost work activity and tax revenue

For comparison: alcohol excise duty contributed PLN 13.4 billion to the state budget in 2020 - about 25% of the costs excessive drinking generates. The remaining PLN 80 billion is net loss, distributed between families, employers, the NHF and the justice system.

How much of that falls on Lodz?

With 646,000 inhabitants (GUS, end of 2024) Lodz accounts for 1.72% of Poland's population. Proportionally that gives about PLN 1.60 billion in annual social costs of alcohol. This extrapolation is cautious, though - Lodz fares worse than the national average on two alcohol-linked indicators:

• Overall mortality in Lodz voivodeship: 12.76 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants (the highest in Poland)
• Accidents with drunk drivers: Lodz voivodeship ranks 2nd in Poland per 100,000 inhabitants over 20, just behind Warmian-Masurian (Unilink/GUS 2024 via Bankier.pl)

The actual cost for Lodz is therefore probably higher than the PLN 1.60 billion implied by a simple extrapolation. The city spends PLN 17.65M on prevention - about 1% of real losses. The ratio shows how far the problem outruns the resources available to the municipality.

Children in the shadow of the bottle

PARPA nationwide estimates put about 1.5 million children in Poland living in families with an alcohol problem. Proportionally for Lodz that is 25-30,000 children. Lodz voivodeship runs 43 specialist therapeutic day clubs for them, covering 2,611 children in 2022; additional after-school clubs took in another 902. In 2023 Lodz NGO grants for prevention programmes and child support in families with alcohol problems totalled PLN 1.44M, reaching 22,080 participants in 98 initiatives.

FAS/FASD - the syndrome no one talks about

A separate and heavy group of victims are children with foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and the wider spectrum of foetal alcohol disorders (FASD). PARPA estimates FAS incidence in Poland at 4 per 1,000 births, and the whole FASD group at 20 per 1,000. In practice that means about 9,000 new FASD cases a year nationwide (the whole spectrum, not just FAS). The Lodz Regional Court has for years run awareness campaigns around World FAS Day (9 September), which shows the topic is on the radar of local institutions, even if public data on FASD in the city itself is scarce.

Adult children of alcoholics (the ACoA syndrome) return with the problem to psychotherapy offices a dozen or twenty years later. Difficulty in close relationships, chronic stress, heightened vulnerability to addiction. ACoA therapy does not undo childhood, but it lets people stop living it.

Youth: the ESPAD 2024 warning

ESPAD (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) 2024 for Lodz voivodeship:

• 85.9% of 17-18-year-olds have drunk alcohol at some point in life
• 68.0% of 15-16-year-olds - the same
• 50.3% of the older cohort drank in the past 30 days
• 11.6% of the older cohort got drunk in the past month

Some of this group will enter adulthood with an established pattern of risky drinking. The next 5-10 years will show whether the 1,113 MOPS families figure from 2023 was a peak or merely a station along the way.

Prevention, treatment, neglect - three levels of the bill

The city spends PLN 17.65M a year on prevention programmes and support, including grants for MCTiPZ and non-governmental organisations. This is the level at which the money is meant to prevent problems before they appear.

Next comes treatment. A single hospitalisation for an alcohol-related condition costs several thousand zloty on average in Poland; a 6-week inpatient rehab stay (the NHF standard) costs PLN 10,000-15,000. Nationwide the NHF spends PLN 574M on alcohol-related disease treatment plus PLN 247.5M on reimbursed drugs. Once medical intervention kicks in, costs rise by an order of magnitude compared to prevention.

Finally there is the bill for neglect: premature deaths, lost productivity, broken marriages, road accidents, domestic violence, children raised in chaos. The sum of these in Poland is PLN 93 billion - about PLN 1.6 billion proportionally for Lodz. Another order of magnitude higher than treatment.

A zloty spent on prevention or early treatment saves dozens of zloty at the level of consequences. The trouble is that prevention generates neither emotion nor headlines. The drama only begins when someone lands on a ward or in police custody, and by then it is expensive.

What works in treatment - evidence-based methods

Patients in Lodz have several methods at their disposal that work well together:

• Alcohol detox - outpatient IV detoxification under medical supervision in 3h, 6h or 12h variants, at the Rogozinskiego 23 clinic or as a home visit. The drip replenishes electrolytes and B vitamins, while medication controls withdrawal symptoms.
• Esperal (alcohol implant) - a disulfiram implant that triggers an aversive reaction after drinking. Requires at least 24 hours of sobriety before the procedure and lasts about 8 months.
• New-generation pharmacotherapy - naltrexone, acamprosate, nalmefene. No aversion effect, but reduces alcohol craving and stabilises the nervous system after years of drinking.
• Addiction psychotherapy - individual, group, cognitive-behavioural and motivational approaches. Without work on thinking and emotional patterns abstinence alone rarely holds.

A full overview is on our alcoholism treatment in Lodz page. The choice depends on drinking history, health, motivation and family situation - so the first step should always be a consultation with a specialist.

Frequently asked questions

How much did Lodz earn from alcohol sales in 2024?

Lodz received PLN 21,849,993.72 from alcohol sales permit fees, 109.04% of the revised budget plan (PLN 20.03M). Source: 2024 Lodz budget execution report, p. 30. A year earlier, in 2022, the figure was PLN 18.59M - a two-year increase of 17.5%. This revenue is not a sales tax in the strict sense, but an annual fee paid by licensed businesses. Under the Sobriety Education Act it must fund the municipal alcohol prevention programme.

Why did MOPS see such a sharp jump in alcohol-affected families?

In a single year the number of alcohol-affected families at MOPS jumped from 874 to 1,113 (+27%). It is a real change in scale. Other indicators grew in parallel: drug-addiction families (+43%), domestic violence cases (+44%), the number of Blue Cards. Behind the figures sit a post-pandemic rise in alcohol consumption, inflation pressuring household budgets, and growing density of sales outlets. A detailed analysis is published in the 2023 Lodz State-of-the-City Report (Table 2, p. 29).

How much does Lodz spend on MKRPA member salaries?

In 2024 the Municipal Alcohol Commission spent PLN 1,224,141.80 on member salaries (82.96% of the planned PLN 1.5M). A further PLN 11,613.77 went to court fees for mandatory-treatment proceedings. The size of commission fees has been a recurring topic in Lodz media (Dziennik Lodzki, Express Ilustrowany) because a large share of members are active politicians tied to the city administration.

Is Esperal refunded by the NHF in Lodz?

No. Disulfiram implantation (Esperal) is not in the Polish NHF-guaranteed services basket, so in Lodz it is only performed in private practices. The NHF does fund addiction therapy (outpatient, day, inpatient) and pharmacotherapy through alcohol clinics including MCTiPZ of Bl. Rafal Chylinski. Private Esperal prices in Lodz start from several hundred zloty - details in the article Esperal - price and cost of the implant.

When can someone be sent for mandatory alcohol treatment in Lodz?

The procedure is launched by the Municipal Alcohol Commission in Lodz. For the court to order mandatory treatment, the addicted person must meet one of the statutory conditions: breakdown of family life, demoralisation of minors, evasion of duties or systematic disturbance of public order. The application may be filed by the family, MOPS, the police or the prosecutor. In 2023 Lodz saw 5,646 Blue Card Working Group meetings - a significant share ended with applications to MKRPA and the court.

How many alcohol sales outlets can operate in Lodz?

The City Council resolution of 4 July 2024 set the maximum number of permits at 5,400 (3,600 for catering + 1,800 for retail). It also introduced a minimum 50-metre distance from churches, schools and other protected facilities. Municipal Police monitor the market: in 2023 they carried out 7,725 inspections of alcohol-selling premises, 623 of them in the "zero zone". Since 17 October 2025 a night-time prohibition is also in force (resolution No. XIX/535/25 of 2 July 2025, 22:00-6:00) on seven central districts: Katedralna, Srodmiescie-Wschod, Gorniak, Baluty-Doly, Baluty-Centrum, Stare Polesie and Stary Widzew. The ban covers shops and petrol stations; it does not apply to restaurants, bars or pubs.

What can I do to help a loved one with an addiction?

The most common mistake families of alcoholics make is trying to cope alone, in silence, hoping things will "somehow work out". Al-Anon groups in Lodz meet free of charge and show that the problem is not unique - this is the first step to take for yourself. Then a conversation with an addiction therapist about a family intervention can be planned. If the drinking person refuses treatment and the situation demands a formal response, the MKRPA application remains. Family involvement in the treatment process (family sessions) markedly increases the chances of maintaining sobriety. More in the article How to act with an alcoholic - advice for families.

Sources

• Lodz 2024 budget execution report - pp. 30, 507-509.
• Lodz 2023 State-of-the-City Report - pp. 11-12, 29, 46, 57, 87.
• Lodz 2022 budget execution report, table 6 (pp. 314-316).
• KCPU-G1 municipal data 2022 - 172 municipalities in Lodz voivodeship.
• Municipal addiction prevention programmes - Lodz BIP.
• Municipal Alcohol Commission - UM Lodzi.
• Public consultations - Lodz night-time prohibition (08.05.2025).
• Information on restricting night-time alcohol sales - BIP Lodz (resolution XIX/535/25).
• Map of Lodz streets with alcohol sales ban 22:00-6:00 - Dziennik Lodzki.
• Lodz City Council resolution of 4 July 2024 on the maximum number of alcohol permits (Dziennik Lodzki coverage).
• Social and economic costs of alcohol consumption - PARPA 2021.
• Costs of excessive alcohol consumption - Puls Medycyny.
• ESPAD 2024 study - Lodz voivodeship.
• Drunk drivers - 2024 statistics.
• Alcohol map of Poland 2026 - Rzeczpospolita.

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This article is for information only and does not replace medical or legal consultation. If you or someone close to you is struggling with an addiction, please contact a specialist.