Thailand tightens rules on alcohol and cigarette s

[Guest]

Thailand tightens rules on alcohol and cigarette sales

 

Tue Dec 14, 2:16 PM ET Health - AFP

 

 

 

TRANG, Thailand (AFP) - Thailand's cabinet approved a tightening of regulations on alcohol and cigarette sales to try to reduce consumption by young people after revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej aired concern.

 

 

The initiatives limit sales of alcohol and cigarettes to 10 hours per day and ban them altogether in schools, universities and temples.

 

 

"We expect the measures will improve the life of youths and result in the reduction of alcohol and cigarette consumption as well as the boosting of social order measures," government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said outside the cabinet meeting, which was held in southern Thailand.

 

 

Under the new measures alcohol and cigarettes can be sold from 11am to 2pm, and from 5pm to midnight.

 

 

It was not immediately clear if the rules would apply to bars or discos, which are allowed to stay open past midnight.

 

 

Surapol Supradit, deputy head of the finance ministry's excise department, said further clarification was needed, but "it is likely that they will include bars, restaurants and pubs."

 

 

A government spokesman said the regulations were agreed to "in principle," and that deputy prime minister Witsanu Krea-ngam, a legal expert, would scrutinise them.

 

 

Thai law already forbids the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to those under age 18, but enforcement has been lax and sales of the products in shops at or near high schools and universities are commonplace.

 

 

Vendors who do not comply could lose sales licenses or face three months in prison and fines of up to 30,000 baht (760 dollars), deputy finance minister Varathep Ratanakorn said after the meeting.

 

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration has renewed efforts recently to rein in vice among youth, especially since the king's birthday speech this month in which he expressed concern for the health of young people.

 

 

Authorities have already begun a nightclubs crackdown headed by Deputy Prime Minister Purachai Piemsomboon. He instituted a sweeping social order campaign two years ago, and the new push is requiring club owners to lower their noise level to 90 decibels or below.

 

 

The health ministry announced in August that alcohol consumption had surged, from a per capita average of 24.8 litres (6.4 gallons) in 1991 to 41.6 litres in 2001, making Thais the fifth-heaviest drinkers in the world after the Portuguese, the Irish, residents of the Bahamas and the Czechs.

 

 

 

What is Thailand going to morph into??? Becuase it is morphing into something different for sure.

 

Oneye

[Zorro]

No sales between 2pm and 5pm.

 

Yep that ought to fix all the problems of tobacco and alcohol consumption.

 

Thailand is sinking further and further into a third world abyss.

 

What a joke.

[stumpy]

Another view on the story here

[Khun_Kong]

stumpdog said:

Another view on the story here

 

Thanks for that link.

 

A link below that yielded this interesting editorial in the Washington Post.

[Guest]

that realy pisses me off! :onfire:

 

who the fuck gives them the right not to allow me to buy cigarettes whenever i need them !!!!!

 

i see it coming - one day i'll have to go to prison because i'm a smoker.

 

and no - i have no intension to give up smoking.

i like to smoke, i enjoy smoking.

 

CUNTS!

[stumpy]

Khun_Kong,

 

Very interesting link, thanks.

 

SD.

[Shit-Spattered Dog]

Could you noy just buy them from a vending machine? ::

[rickfarang]

There they go again, lawmakers making laws. Too bad they can't figure out a way to enforce the laws they have now. I must say that I support the idea, but this may be a case of more appearance and less substance (here?).

 

flyonzewall:

"...who the fuck gives them the right not to allow me to buy cigarettes whenever i need them !!!!!"

 

Mi Jai lahn. Apparently a die-hard (pun intended) smoker's visceral reaction. You have whatever rights the government of whatever country you are in allows. But don't you think there will be ways to get a pack of smokes when you want them???

 

Shit-Spattered Dog :

"Could you noy just buy them from a vending machine?"

 

I have never noticed a cigarette vending machine in Thailand. Are there any cigarette machines in the country?

[Guest]

>>>>There they go again, lawmakers making laws. Too bad they can't figure out a way to enforce the laws they have now. I must say that I support the idea, but this may be a case of more appearance and less substance (here?).<<<<

 

 

yeps - lawmakers making oppressive shite laws, as if we don't have more than enough of them already.

 

you support the idea? well, explain me please the use of that law other than pure harassment of vendors and smokers?

 

less substance? it just needs one arsehole tessakit (municipial sort of cop) seeing a vendor sell cigarettes, and that vendor either is in for a huge fine or even prison, or a new opening for teamoney. and there are lots of those tessakit around.

 

 

 

>>>But don't you think there will be ways to get a pack of smokes when you want them???<<<

 

yeah, and if i forgot to buy a pack, and ran out at 3 pm, i will break a law if i buy one.

 

 

 

>>>You have whatever rights the government of whatever country you are in allows.<<<

 

and i have a right to say that some newly made law is an oppressive law that is there to terrorise and harras the population.

and the present government is very good in making those sort of laws here.

and nops, it doesn't work in my case to say if you don't like it go somewhere else, as i don't have anywhere else to go.

[Guest]

i have yet to see a cigarette vending machine here. there are none.