Alcohol Control Laws in Thailand to be a Divisive Issue in the Post Election Period

[Mickeymaus]

32 minutes ago, Seppius said:

The tax revenue would be greatly increased for the government if they allowed 7/Elevens and chain restaurants in the big malls to serve between 2pm and 5pm

Not so long ago most (all?) 7/11 here in Pattaya didn't care about selling restrictions (but they obeyed on religious holidays and election days). Not sure what changed. Perhaps they should talk to the entertainment venue operators that still don't (have to) care.

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Mickeymaus

[Mickeymaus]

From the original article:

 

"She also claimed that law enforcement often used vague Thai alcohol laws as a way to collect bribes and encourage corruption, especially from bars and night clubs" 

 

Many laws here in Thailand are used for bribes and corruption. So remove all these laws? Why not remove the corruption?! 

[proton]

5 hours ago, kennw said:

Yes typical Taksin, UN agency noted alcoholism  a problem in rural Thailand, recommended pricing based on Alcohol %, a real vote loser if imposed on lao cow (white whisky) so the old law on selling times re introduced and tax on beer (farang drink) upped. Problem solved? Of course not but no up country votes lost.

But the price of Chang has consistently gone up while the % has gone down, along with the bottle size. I no longer buy it.

[herfiehandbag]

4 hours ago, Trippy said:

If they're going to relax the liquor laws, I hope they increase enforcement and penalties for drunk driving. 

Too often farangs that are too drunk to walk, get on their bike and drive away. That needs to be stopped.

From time to time Thais may do that as well...

[daviddunham]

9 hours ago, loong said:

Not only is the ban on alcohol sales before 11 AM and between 2 - 5 PM totally ridiculous, it makes absolutely no sense.

At those times my local 7-11 cannot sell alcohol but I can go into the bar next door and buy a beer at twice the price!

If alcohol sales are banned why are bars allowed to sell it at these times?

They are not, you probably are staying in a tourist <deleted>hole so bars don't care. At 7-11 they have their job to lose

[sambum]

4 hours ago, kingstonkid said:

My guess for why the ban.

 

The actual ban does make sense if you consider this.

 

The normal work was 9-5 

 

Lunch is usually on a staggered time between 11 and 2

 

Growing up it was and probably still is not that uncommon to see people take a late or long lunch.  

Also remember that in Thailand people cared about government employees and not others.

 

Therefore the last thing you would want is an employee drinking in the morning or not coming back after lunch or leaving early at the end of the day.

 

As we have discussed on an almost daily basis here you can not teach stupidity.  People will drink and will push the rules.

 

However, you can regulate stupidity to stop it or make it more difficult.

 

As to bars that are open during the time period they are usually in heavy tourist locations and I have never seen Thai drinking in the ones that I go to.

 

One of the things we at times forget is that the laws here are not our laws they are not to punish us.  They are Thai laws set out to "protect" the Thai people and businesses.

 

AGAIN I am sure that while you can not buy a beer at 3 there is no reason that if you are going to want a cool brew in the afternoon you can not buy them when the store is allowed to sell and put it in this strange new invention called the refrigerator unless, of course, you are one of those weird people that like warm beer.

 

 

"Lunch is usually on a staggered time between 11 and 2"

Correct, so the employee can purchase beer during those hours - doesn't give much time to cool it down in the refrigerator! However, not everybody that drinks has beer as their preferred tipple! I would imagine that among Thais, SangSom will come pretty high up the list! 

The reason I heard was to stop schoolchildren from buying booze on their way home after school, which I suppose makes a bit of sense, but not a lot - all that would be required would be for shop owners/supermarkets to not sell to schoolchildren - easily recognisable by their uniforms, or if not in uniform, check their ID for proof of age:-

"You should note that the minimum drinking age in Thailand is 18 years old. In addition, alcohol beverages can only be sold to a person who is at least 20 years old. If you sell alcohol to an underage person, you may be subject to a criminal penalty of up to 1 year imprisonment and/or up to a THB20,000 fine."

The problem is, it needs the law to be enforced, and I am sure that there are plenty of "momma/corner shops" that turn a blind eye as well as lots of BIB that realise there is no "tea money" to be had from your average schoolkid!

In any case, if the UK is anything to go by, the kids will always  find a friendly adult to get them a "carry out"!

Edited June 12, 2023 by sambum

[kingstonkid]

13 minutes ago, sambum said:

"Lunch is usually on a staggered time between 11 and 2"

Correct, so the employee can purchase beer during those hours - doesn't give much time to cool it down in the refrigerator! However, not everybody that drinks has beer as their preferred tipple! I would imagine that among Thais, SangSom will come pretty high up the list! 

The reason I heard was to stop schoolchildren from buying booze on their way home after school, which I suppose makes a bit of sense, but not a lot - all that would be required would be for shop owners/supermarkets to not sell to schoolchildren - easily recognisable by their uniforms, or if not in uniform, check their ID for proof of age:-

"You should note that the minimum drinking age in Thailand is 18 years old. In addition, alcohol beverages can only be sold to a person who is at least 20 years old. If you sell alcohol to an underage person, you may be subject to a criminal penalty of up to 1 year imprisonment and/or up to a THB20,000 fine."

The problem is, it needs the law to be enforced, and I am sure that there are plenty of "momma/corner shops" that turn a blind eye as well as lots of BIB that realise there is no "tea money" to be had from your average schoolkid!

In any case, if the UK is anything to go by, the kids will always  find a friendly adult to get them a "carry out"!

My point about buying and putting in the refrigerator was at the people that want to have a beer int he afternoon that are not working and complain that the store will not sell to them

[Gilligan In Drag]

Its not just the selling times. The whole lower alcohol content part of the alcohol market is a shambles at this point. There seems to be no sign of bottoming out either. Its ironic you can order pot online, see th ads for it etc but not beer. The advertising ban is really on over-reach. Retailers and bars should be allowed to advertise to customers what they have and how much it costs. But as it stands, you cannot look up on internet before you go and find out who has what and how much it costs.

 

Its kind of like you are not suppose to want anything other than Chang, Singha, Leo and Heineken and a few assorted brands of Thai whiskey (rum) and some sweet some sweet ladies drinks, Spy, Smirnoffs lemon and some others. But in actuality that is not the case, most venues often offer other things, Thai micro brew stuff, which i don't caare for personally, rather bored of the style of IPA and wheat non of which have the subtle flair of say some long established European beer makers. though not many except perhaps in Bangkok where some places offer an impressive selection. Our Makro up country dropped their Fullers line of ales and a few other interesting and good value tings like Savannah cider from South Africa. Tops has really squeezed out the interesting beer section nearly entirely, this gradual quarterly expansion of Chang and Singha, till theres now this narrow band at the end o the aisle. They hung a strip of mini bags of dried squid concealing behind it a couple of dusty bottles of something that should be there ront and center the unqiue and excellent Duvel beer from Belgium so that one is nearly finihsed being slyly pushed out and many will just forget about it.

 

But a drinks menu online is a violation of advertizing to them. As is a listing on a supermarkets website. Everything in the supermarket is listed and can be ordered for delivery, but not beer Seems that that would benefit the major alcohol companies quite a bit, what they would like more than anything I would guess is that there would be no need to say/ask what anyone sells, that there'd only be the same few things that they manufacture everywhere.

 

Its an ugly patch on the country's image for tourists that they have only tatty wine coolers and the irregularly brewed Singha, "What will this batch taste of, mildew dish rag or toouch low quality hops or faintly of sugar and cabbage? Chang is drinkable if boring. Of course if you are just in Thailand for the girls who cares you hardly notice the boring drinks and vaguely nauseating alcohol. But its the government that is always bangin on about how the want Thailand to be for high class foreigners only, but all you are going to offer is Pattaya beer bar selction of drinks , "Hab Strawberry Spy, Bacardi Seaweed-Mango, and Leo! And Japanese craft beer small bottle, you give me 450 baht!"  Of course plenty of alternatives are available but you have to physically go out and search for them or have a number of evenings of nasty drinks. Like other things the tourists ar in for a raw deal because they don't have the time here to suss out where to go for what they may want. If you are truly wealthy of course I suppose you are getting exquisite wines and champange and money is no object so you can shrug off the fact that the pricess are 3x now due to the latest in an endin series of tax increases on what they are back home. How many of the hi-sos  even bother with Thailand? If were them, I be going to places where I could get nice alcohol because it is appreciated and supported in those countries, Spain and Italy for wines, Germany and Belgium for good beers or even my home home good old USA, where tons of beers have finally established themselves after we had a long  period of what Thailand is going  through now with a few insipid 3 percent beers like Bud, Bud light, Miller and Coors about your only choice. In most of us Ynaks minds, there was no such thing as anything else, beer was a mono-culture an the differenc eof beer was what tribe you belonged to because the marketing brainwshed you into it. I am someone unique and i own a gun so I drink Coors! I am proud to be gay so I drink Miller! I'm Joe Avergae so I drink Bud! I'm a bull terrier owner and an alcoh so I drink Bud light!

 

  I remember under Thaksin, there was talk in the media that they were going to require that stores turn the cans and bottles so that the labels would not be visible and by that not "advertise." That shows you the mentality, that there are some in the ministries who just want it banned period, don't seem bold enough to go that far. Though I'm sure Singha Beers is pleased about that situation, It makes it impossible to find any competing specialty alcohols, particularly imported ones like say Belgian beers, the outrageous levels of taxation on such make it so that few want to buy them and very few shops or supermarkets if any at this point carry them.

 

There seems to be some problem with stouts as well. Stouts are a rather basic species inhabiting the beers and ale eco-sphere, they even have a good presence in countries that are supposedly more hostile to alcohol than Thailand is, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore where you can get Guiness in many places and major lager beer makers like Bintang of Indonesia, kind of the Boon Rawd of Indo make a decent stout but here it is the stouts that the supermarkets are inevitably always dropping from their inventory, its like the dark skin prejudice gets unconciously transferrred to beer. I nag the and they order it and carry it for a month and then, "No, nobody buy that beer sir." Well, so then where is it? Were the irish stout leprechauns stealing it during the night?

 

OK, granted, they have cottoned onto IPAs and wheat beers but to me those are starting to look like lager that is expensive. You vill eat the bugs, take our cheap yaba tablets, drink factory lager, sniff zee paint thinner, own nothing and be happy!

[blackshadow]

i will believe all this about times to sell alcohol when I see it......until then I will just have to suffer

[chalawaan]

I used to care.

 

Not having to is just another benefit of giving up the overpriced feline urine that passes for beer over here. 

 

Chok Dee! ????

[richard_smith237]

10 hours ago, Trippy said:

If they're going to relax the liquor laws, I hope they increase enforcement and penalties for drunk driving. 

Too often farangs that are too drunk to walk, get on their bike and drive away. That needs to be stopped.

Dual standards much ?....  Isn't enforcing dui against farang racist?

IF people can't go withouth drink between 2-5pm the must have a dependency issue... 

How to people 'drive' a bike.. something to do with thinking they are in a car and driving instead of riding?

 

There....  I think thats most of the stupidity we can expect from this thread based on the ridiculous puritanical comments we had in the recent 'booze ban' thread. 

 

 

[Trippy]

21 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Dual standards much ?....  Isn't enforcing dui against farang racist?

IF people can't go withouth drink between 2-5pm the must have a dependency issue... 

How to people 'drive' a bike.. something to do with thinking they are in a car and driving instead of riding?

 

There....  I think thats most of the stupidity we can expect from this thread based on the ridiculous puritanical comments we had in the recent 'booze ban' thread. 

 

 

Your calling me stupid for saying drunk driving needs to be stopped? 

[richard_smith237]

29 minutes ago, Trippy said:

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

Dual standards much ?....  Isn't enforcing dui against farang racist?

IF people can't go withouth drink between 2-5pm the must have a dependency issue... 

How to people 'drive' a bike.. something to do with thinking they are in a car and driving instead of riding?

 

There....  I think thats most of the stupidity we can expect from this thread based on the ridiculous puritanical comments we had in the recent 'booze ban' thread. 

 

 

Expand  

Your calling me stupid for saying drunk driving needs to be stopped? 

Nope... not at all... 

I'm highlighting the silliness in your post which for some inexplicable reason only addresses the issue of Farang's getting drunk and 'driving' away' and how that needs to be stopped....   it ALL needs to be stopped, but of course you know that. 

 

And, then the heading off the other obvious puritanical responses from 'some' poisters that always pop up on threads such as this. 

 

 

11 hours ago, Trippy said:

If they're going to relax the liquor laws, I hope they increase enforcement and penalties for drunk driving. 

Too often farangs that are too drunk to walk, get on their bike and drive away. That needs to be stopped.

[Classic Ray]

I would not be surprised to find that the restrictions on licensing hours were inherited from the UK as were many other Thai laws.

 

Afternoon closing was introduced in the UK to discourage factory and agricultural workers from failing to return after lunch, and partly for religious reasons, ie Sunday opening. It was abolished some years ago when alcohol was allowed to be sold 24/7.

 

Time to introduce in Thailand and let market forces and local conditions determine when shops and bar owners choose to open for alcohol sales.

[jonclark]

Listen ya all. This is Thailand and Thai people love their booze. There will never be a time or holiday when you can't buy yourself a beer or a box of beer. Whatever takes your fancy. 

 

The laws are outdated and antiquated and the people have bypassed the laws. Every moo Baan, village or town has a number of shops that will not only sell you your choice of drink....but will get the local motorcycle crew to deliver it to your door.

[roger101]

On 6/12/2023 at 9:03 AM, Trippy said:

If they're going to relax the liquor laws, I hope they increase enforcement and penalties for drunk driving. 

Too often farangs that are too drunk to walk, get on their bike and drive away. That needs to be stopped.

I think you might find that many more Thai's drive drunk than farangs. I agree with you about enforcement, but then the RTP don't seem to enforce any traffic laws.

[sambum]

On 6/12/2023 at 3:02 PM, kingstonkid said:

My point about buying and putting in the refrigerator was at the people that want to have a beer int he afternoon that are not working and complain that the store will not sell to them

You never mentioned people that are not working, you talked about people's normal or staggered lunch hours.

 

 

[kingstonkid]

10 hours ago, sambum said:

You never mentioned people that are not working, you talked about people's normal or staggered lunch hours.

 

 

my bad sorry