1 minute ago, StayinThailand2much said:

 

Apparently, they are worried that kids rush to the stores to buy hard liquor as soon as school is out... (No such silly laws in any of Thailand's neighbouring countries, and in none of the other countries do the underaged queue up for booze, so either Thai kids are "different", 🍾🥴

or the politicians are...) 🥳

Really? with what money? no Thai kid has enough money to buy a noodle soup let alone buy alcohol,

Special zoning for tourists will be worked out. This has been done before, I remember having to drink beer out of a coffee cup. while the waitress hid the bottle. Then there was the decision to ban shops from selling alcohol within a radius of 3 (I think) hundred metres of schools.  Meanwhile, mom and pop shops will continue to sell beer, as they did last time, apart from the first few days. "This too, will pass".

2 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Really? with what money? no Thai kid has enough money to buy a noodle soup let alone buy alcohol,

 

Which makes the law and the reasoning behind it...

 

"This afternoon ban (2-5 pm) directly addresses the time when students might be leaving school and seeking to purchase alcohol. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven have their systems programmed to automatically prohibit sales during these times."

 

...even more ridiculous.

 

8 minutes ago, cooked said:

(...) I remember having to drink beer out of a coffee cup. while the waitress hid the bottle. 

 

Waiting for the TAT to promote this, like "Visit Thailand, where you can travel back in time to the Prohibition, where you can only drink beer from a coffee cup!" 😆 

7 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Individuals caught drinking or being served alcohol between 2pm and 5pm, or from midnight to 11am

For tourists who want to spend a couple of weeks of vacation relaxing, which includes having drinks during the afternoon which is considered perfectly acceptable and normal behavior outside of Thailand...

Weird but as usual suspicious.

 

Two things jump out at me (maybe more) by this..

 

First, does the existing act actually specify banning BOTH the sale and 'consumption' or just the sale between 2-5 pm? If it refers only to the sale, then the law needs amending and then royal ascent to make it a revised law - not just some announcement by a bureaucrat. If it has always been both sale/consumption then it's just reinterpreting it and placing the onus on drinkers out-of-hours, and letting the sellers off scot free. Stupid.

 

Stupid. Or is it?

 

Follow the money. Restaurants and bars can read this to mean they can serve all day - the onus is on the drinker - and nothing can happen to the retailer. Cops will be able to shake down anyone caught imbibing during those hours. Presently they make most money by wheel clamps for people parking on the wrong side of the street. My Thai relative just paid 500 to the cop instead of 900 at the police station - for his motorcycle parked on the wrong side. If it's 10,000 at the cop station if caught with a beer in your hand in the afternoon, does the shakedown cost 6,000 baht cash instead for the tourist. Accompany the guy to the ATM? 

 

Ask yourself, why else would they do this? And who do the cops share the cash with? There must be non-police officials that would gain financially otherwise the administration wouldn't bother with this.

48 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

 

I remember when the 2pm > 5pm rule was introduced under Thaksin, soi 6 bars could not open in the afternoon.

Maybe we're back there again

Maybe they shouldn't open at all. Just saying...

20 minutes ago, cooked said:

Special zoning for tourists will be worked out

(...)

Meanwhile, mom and pop shops will continue to sell beer, as they did last time, apart from the first few days (...)

 

Yes, foreign tourists might get arrested and fined 10,000 baht for drinking a beer on the beach, while, at the same time, the mom&pop shops, ignored by law-enforcement, keep selling to minors a few hundred yards away... If this doesn't entice foreigners on their holiday to visit, nothing will! 😆 

Hmm, Anutin is in charge right? So go after booze drinkers, but weed shops and weed smokers? No problem.. Anytime.

Kind of strange how this story has come about right now, the government is reportedly looking to end the 2 to 5 rule.

But in/from Janaury aren't things changing for the better, anyway?

2 hours ago, Stressed Eric said:

This is it.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin for the Land Of Fake Smiles...

 

No coming back from this one.

Utterly ridiculous.

 

Eric.

good, we won't miss you at all!

37 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

 

Apparently, they are worried that kids rush to the stores to buy hard liquor as soon as school is out... (No such silly laws exist in any of Thailand's neighbouring countries and beyond, and in none of the other countries do the underaged queue up for booze, so either Thai kids are very "different", 🍾🥴 or the politicians are... 🥳)

These same kids can buy a bag of yaba for the price of a large bottle of beer. May I add who are the people supplying the dealers. I have first hand info on this as my nephew was told if he does 6 months in the nick all is forgotten. If he spoke openly about it he would he would disappear.

I don't need to drink alcohol personally between 14:00 & 17:00, but it's such a childish rule. 

Recently, two young girls at 7-Eleven refused to sell us beer at 1:20 p.m. I even had to take a photo of their own sign, which clearly stated that the prohibition applies only from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Something is seriously wrong with this restrictive mentality — starting from the government at the top and spreading all the way down through society.

5 minutes ago, Hellfire said:

Recently, two young girls at 7-Eleven refused to sell us beer at 1:20 p.m. I even had to take a photo of their own sign, which clearly stated that the prohibition applies only from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Something is seriously wrong with this restrictive mentality — starting from the government at the top and spreading all the way down through society.

 

There seems to be a strain of a very punitive mentality in a small segment of Thai society. The rhetoric associated with making cannabis illegal again crossed the line into petty nastiness as well.  

30 minutes ago, garygooner said:

I don't need to drink alcohol personally between 14:00 & 17:00, but it's such a childish rule. 

 

I used to work in Thailand, quickly doing my grocery shopping on the way home around 3.30 or 4 p.m. No desire to hanging around and waiting for the clock to strike 5 just to be able to buy a few bottles of beer to take home...  (Neither mom&pop shops, nor 7-Eleven sell my favourite brands.) - This stupid law saved me over the years a lot of money, which I happily spent when travelling to other countries, to buy, guess what, beer! Even today, when on holiday in Thailand, I rather not buy beer at the shop, as I don't want to check every time, whether it is the 'right time' and I'm allowed (as an adult) to buy beer... 😆 

In Australia, there are early openers(8am), sales can be made all day until around 11pm for take aways and later for licensed premises, strangely enough they do not have the same problems with drunks they do here in Thailand, just maybe its the way people think here thats the problem. Low iq's dont help as does farangs that are only interested in drinking and sex as thats why many come here, also being a third world country with laws matching that sort of thinking is all in the mix, more common sense laws around alcohol and how it is made available and to who would have more effect than stupid sales times, mum & pop shops/7/11's etc should not be selling it, it should also be for sale in seperate shops/buildings away from food etc with  staff held responsible for under age  selling and selling to people under the influence. Taking it away from local shops so it isnt so easily available would make a big difference, police actually doing what they are paid for also helps, restricted daytime sales dont help at all, its the way people think thats the problem and the easily available places to buy it from just about every corner shop

18 minutes ago, seajae said:

In Australia, there are early openers(8am), sales can be made all day until around 11pm for take aways and later for licensed premises (...)

 

Similar nanny-state approach, but much more practical (call staff at checkout when buying alcohol, or show ID - in Darwin - when buying there at a bottle shop). At least, as a grown-up, no problem to buy a beer, while in Thailand one is treated like a school-kid.

1 hour ago, ronnie50 said:

Follow the money. Restaurants and bars can read this to mean they can serve all day - the onus is on the drinker - and nothing can happen to the retailer. Cops will be able to shake down anyone caught imbibing during those hours. Presently they make most money by wheel clamps for people parking on the wrong side of the street. My Thai relative just paid 500 to the cop instead of 900 at the police station - for his motorcycle parked on the wrong side. If it's 10,000 at the cop station if caught with a beer in your hand in the afternoon, does the shakedown cost 6,000 baht cash instead for the tourist. Accompany the guy to the ATM? 

Exactly - the BIB will shake down tourists for 10K THB.  My answer for tourists:  Vietnam.

4 hours ago, Stressed Eric said:

This is it.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin for the Land Of Fake Smiles...

 

No coming back from this one.

Utterly ridiculous.

 

Eric.

See ya bob smith.  Well, until you create another account.

5 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Stupidity is gigantic in Thailand..The country wants tourist but Thailand wants to control everything just as they do with the Thai people.. Tourists don't come to a country that treat people like kids..This law is soo dumb, because you are allowed to drink a beer only from 5pm to 11pm.. No alcohol drinks on the beach when it is hot in the afternoon. Tourists are being chased away.. and not even that.. A few weeks back there was the idea to open the entertainment venue till 4 am.. Why should they do it, as the visitors are not allowed to drink?? Is only only to promote drugs?? Do they really think that people in a bar  going to sit and drinking water after midnight??? The country is looking more and more as dictatorship instead a free country..

Mexico, Vietnam - there are other countries with much more beautiful beaches which have no problems with tourist sucking some suds on the beach in the afternoon.  Then Thailand complains about it's tourism issues.

1 hour ago, StayinThailand2much said:

 

Waiting for the TAT to promote this, like "Visit Thailand, where you can travel back in time to the Prohibition, where you can only drink beer from a coffee cup!" 😆 

I like your comments... and LOVE your "Spitting Image" avatar... kudos!  That show is hilarious!  I only recently started watching it. 

Wait, consumption of alcohol is also restricted in those hrs?  I thought it was only the sale?

Thailand, you are going the wrong way. Stop it already! Stop treating your people and visitors like fkn children. Enough of the control. It is pukeworthy puerile garbage. A mass exodus of tourists to Vietnam is what you deserve. 

14 minutes ago, DrPhibes said:

Wait, consumption of alcohol is also restricted in those hrs?  I thought it was only the sale?

 

Nope.....unless you can prove that the establishment has a certificate of special dispensation....your responsibility mind......then you are looking at a 10k fine

11 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Thailand, you are going the wrong way. Stop it already! Stop treating your people and visitors like fkn children. Enough of the control. It is pukeworthy puerile garbage. A mass exodus of tourists to Vietnam is what you deserve. 

All it takes for such nonsense laws to be promulgated is one nutter in the parliament than evoke religion and modesty

of the Thai people to such drivel laws to pass,

 

And on a different, no less useless note, with new regulations beginning January 1, 2026, that will require import duty and VAT on all online goods from the 1st baht, can you imagine the mess in post offices trying to cope with 100 baht items imported from China?

 

I can see this going one of two ways....

 

1. Bars jump through the hoops to get a licence.......monetisation through regulation

2. The RTP have another revenue source.........monetisation through extortion

33 minutes ago, DrPhibes said:

Wait, consumption of alcohol is also restricted in those hrs?  I thought it was only the sale?

I have no doubt the new "law" has fully thought through all scenarios of purchase and consumption and these will be clearly detailed in guidance notes for all concerned.  It's a bit like the now legal (possibly?) alcohol vending machines which are also covered by this new legislation, under strict conditions and guidelines.  Unfortunately the same have yet to be written or even decided who is going to write them hence recent protests.

42 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Thailand, you are going the wrong way. Stop it already! Stop treating your people and visitors like fkn children. Enough of the control. It is pukeworthy puerile garbage. A mass exodus of tourists to Vietnam is what you deserve. 

I love this!

 

Eric.