Proposed alcohol ban for New Year and Songkran

[Somtamnication]

Note to self........ buy alcohol the day before the ban......

[TomYumpoochai]

Well the russians arnt gonna be too happy with that as they wont be able to walk from one 7/11 to the next with a bottle of chang in their hands.....i saw some hiso russians walking last night with breezers....

[losworld]

Well the russians arnt gonna be too happy with that as they wont be able to walk from one 7/11 to the next with a bottle of chang in their hands.....i saw some hiso russians walking last night with breezers....

And you are the king of england? Geesh... to each his own. If someone wants to stroll with a breezer <deleted> let 'em. What's wrong with that?

[Tchooptip]

A Tea-Total new year eve in every hotels and restaurants (publics places) in LOS, happy New Year every one

[The manic]

Ah what the h3ll. Just change the national religion to Islam

The Islamic lobby is powerful in Thailand and I believe Saman Footrakul is a muslim name.

[whybother]

Note to self........ buy alcohol the day before the ban......

Note to everyone ... read the OP.

"ban on consumption" ... not "ban on sale".

[yimlitnoy]

Dr. Saman got his position during the Dr. Thaksin cabinet now In Dubai ?

[IAMHERE]

Great, they should have told the world this 6 months ago when people were making New Years plans for travel.

Even better, what is 'public' ? The hotel is having a public forced party that is included in the price of the room. No alcohol except in bars with a front door ?

Edited December 4, 2014 by IAMHERE

[The manic]

So all the street bars like the market stall would be closed down but you could go to an expensive bar or hotel and drink. Yet another attack on poor people trying to make a buck and have some fun.

[fritzzz25]

No drinking in the streets? Well, there goes all the Russian tourists in Pattaya sharing one large bottle of Archa and lumbering down the streets six abreast....... for one night

[motorsaimang]

lol Songkran has the most public drinking

[TheWizardofRnR]

Geeez please don't put anymore Nails in Tourism's Coffin , it just started to climb out of the doldrums and This Doctor

wants to kill it again ! Here come the cancellations , and I had just noticed the signs of life returning to the Streets and Businesses ....more traffic! They tried to Cancel Mardi Gras once in New Orleans , everyone showed up anyways as the people rose up saying Mardi Gras is like your Birthday ,it cannot be cancelled ! The two events this guy wants to Ban Alcohol at ,

will backfire and create either a bigger problem with the Police being tied up chasing Violators or Losing the tourists who come to these parties and the business they bring to the Thai economy will be lost , and not just for now, it will Domino effect to later too !

[brucegoniners]

On one hand I get it. It will save lives and reduce the carnage.

But are you going to tell the hotels, restaurants and bars they have to basically close down on their busiest night of the year?

Are you going to tell the tourists who came here to enjoy New Years (both Thai and foreigners) that they can't drink at public places? Yeah, that will really be good for the country's image, won't it?

This country is so white and black and there is absolutely no grey. Makes me crazy sometimes.

Why don't they just ban the sales of alcohol altogether?

[Sparkles]

What a wonderful way to encourage tourism. An alcohol ban at New Year? That is one of the craziest ideas I have heard yet. So many people will stop coming here for the Christmas and New Year holidays if they go ahead with this ban.

Problem if it goes ahead is that most won't know until they get here,but they won't be back

[jabis]

Note to self........ buy alcohol the day before the ban......

It was a couple of years ago when I was out shopping general stuff from Big C or Tesco Lotus with a friend & his wife, who runs a resort, and on top of the foodstuff etc I also picked some export beers and wines for myself (didn't have a clue it was one of those regulated days) and upon getting to the cashier, he just said he can't beep the bottles if I don't buy more (can't remember how much more precisely) - I just went back to the shelves, picked an extra case of beers, strolled back - and voila *beep beep* and the receipt had wholesale (in Thai) prefixed on the rows containing alcohol

[AlQaholic]

From some law site:

"A public place is generally an indoor or outdoor area, whether privately or publicly owned, to which the public have access by right or by invitation, expressed or implied, whether by payment of money or not, but not a place when used exclusively by one or more individuals for a private gathering or other personal purpose."

So it seems a bar/restaurant would be defined as a Public place then, however if it is private club for members then it is ok to booze away. I seem to remember some arrangement like that many years ago in Belgium, where all hangouts was private clubs, where you signed up for a membership at the door.

[Torrens54]

If it reduces the Road Carnage.... BRING IT ON....EXTEND IT !

[EyesWideOpen]

From some law site:

"A public place is generally an indoor or outdoor area, whether privately or publicly owned, to which the public have access by right or by invitation, expressed or implied, whether by payment of money or not, but not a place when used exclusively by one or more individuals for a private gathering or other personal purpose."

So it seems a bar/restaurant would be defined as a Public place then, however if it is private club for members then it is ok to booze away. I seem to remember some arrangement like that many years ago in Belgium, where all hangouts was private clubs, where you signed up for a membership at the door.

Correct. I wonder how the Thai bar owners will do a workaround. Maybe make their bars

a private club for one day with a tiny membership fee.

[bkkgooner]

Songkran without alcohol ehhhhhhhhhhh

[mathias67]

I see the fun police are at it again, worse luck...

Excuse me if I appear thick but when the say public places do they mean bars or just drinking in parks, on the street ( as they do on Songkran ) etc. If they really mean bars etc then this lot need a brain transplant telling people they are nt allowed to bring in the New Year without a party. Well tourism is down about 20% just add another 10% to that at least

[Jimbo2014]

So it's a ban on booze, shisha, happy ends. Well on a positive note the number of celebrate tea totelers is sure to pick up tot

[Robert24]

it won't happen believe me. You have to differentiate between things the government will really do and enforce and things that won't happen. This one will not go anywhere.

[SOTIRIOS]

....feigning propriety.....

[peecee]

Public places, so that means you can drink in a pub etc, yes or no?

Yes; tea, coffee, cola etc!

[NoshowJones]

Ah what the h3ll. Just change the national religion to Islam

and then you can't eat pork.

[NoshowJones]

They mean ban drinking on the street?

That should be the case all the year round.

[BV70]

Or maybe, just maybe, 'public places' in Thailand carries the same meaning as it does across the western world and you'll no longer be able to stagger down the street swigging from a bottle of vodka? Whereas a bar is a private establishment where alcohol can be drunk all day long.

Just a thought.

[The manic]

Geeez please don't put anymore Nails in Tourism's Coffin , it just started to climb out of the doldrums and This Doctor

wants to kill it again ! Here come the cancellations , and I had just noticed the signs of life returning to the Streets and Businesses ....more traffic! They tried to Cancel Mardi Gras once in New Orleans , everyone showed up anyways as the people rose up saying Mardi Gras is like your Birthday ,it cannot be cancelled ! The two events this guy wants to Ban Alcohol at ,

will backfire and create either a bigger problem with the Police being tied up chasing Violators or Losing the tourists who come to these parties and the business they bring to the Thai economy will be lost , and not just for now, it will Domino effect to later too !

I wish they would ban songkran.

[The manic]

They mean ban drinking on the street?

That should be the case all the year round.

Yes. And then if the police saw you drinking a bottle of water or swigging a Pepsi on the street they could give you piss test to check for alcohol. And they could ban eating on the street.

[A1Str8]

Great idea. That means everybody will stay home since people aren't able to have fun without drinking.

Edited December 4, 2014 by A1Str8