PM Prayut orders ban on alcohol sales near universities and vocational colleges

[webfact]

PM orders ban on alcohol sales near universities



BANGKOK, 23 July 2015 (NNT) - Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has signed an official announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office banning alcohol sales within 300 meters of universities and vocational colleges.

The new rule is an amendment of Sections 4 and 27 of the 2008 Alcohol Control Act. Alcohol sales within 300 meters of higher-education institutions governed by the education law are now officially outlawed.

However, the announcement stated that the new ban will not apply to hotels and other service operators established legally under royal decree.

The ban will be enforced 30 days after it is published in the Royal Gazette.

The rule has been widely supported by the anti-alcohol networks and the public sector, responding to growing concerns over the rising number of young drinkers.


-- NNT 2015-07-23

[NextStationBangkok]

This is a very good decision since coup government taken charge, probably 100-150 meters away from schools and universities is OK. Earlier governments were funded by drinks manufacturers who wants a free flow (wind fall?) sale!

Big trouble will be 7-11s operating there. Anyhow regular drinkers can walk little bit more to get it from next shop, will be a good exercise too.

[bangkokfrog]

The only trouble is that it will encourage those living on campus to drive their cars / motorbikes when they go out for a few drinks after class.

[daoyai]

Yet another move to benefit the elite, so the big hotel is exempt but the small cafe or shop that legally and in good faith opened within 300 meters is screwed.

[johng]

Maybe its too simple, but why don't they just ask customers who look like they might be of student age for ID

to show they are over 20 years old which is the legal age to buy alcohol.

[tonbridgebrit]

Yes, education and alcohol simply don't go together. I'd make it 500 metres myself. And how about a ban on cigarettes as well ?

[bendare]

Completely stupid rule, why cant they just inforce the fact that you must be over 18 to buy alcohol, and heavily fine anyone breaking the rule. This means students will ride their bikes EVEN more dangerously to get out of the 300 mtr zone. We had government officials come into my restaurant yesterday and tell me to run my alcohol stock down as we are inside the 300 metre zone of a tech college, in Chaiyaphum. I measured it yesterday and i make it 327 metres. If anyone can recommend a good lawyer i would like to know please.

[jonclark]

The only way this ban would work is on the assumptions that the students are just too <deleted> lazy to get off their <deleted> to travel 300 meters to by booze, thus reducing the consumption of alcohol. The downside is that if this assumption turns out to be correct, it doesn't bode well for the future of the country. If the young future leaders can't be bothered to go 300 meters for a beer, they sure as hell ain't gonna be bothered to get a job 5 years down the road.

[webfact]

Booze ban to create pockets of prohibition
By Porsche Jirapatwong


ABOVE: Under the new alcohol ban soon to go into effect, alcohol could not be sold anywhere but registered hotels in the areas marked in red on this map of a portion of Bangkok’s central business district.

BANGKOK: -- It’s the last Friday of the month, your paycheck has dropped and leaving the office it’s time to wash the week away.

You start at Siam Paragon or CentralWorld’s Groove for dinner and wine with your tii rak, but they’re not serving. You head to a sports bar on Sukhumvit Road for some brew with your crew, but it’s gone dark. Desperate you race to Soi Cowboy to find the vodka locked up.

Impossible as it is to imagine this scenario being real, that's the reality of a new ban on alcohol sales signed into law Monday and expected to go into effect next month.

As written and enacted under the military government’s special “Section 44” powers, the ban is for all alcohol sales – shopping malls, pubs, restaurants and everything – within 300 meters of schools. The only exemptions are for registered hotels and government-designated entertainment zones such as Patpong, Royal City Avenue-upper Thonglor, and that stretch of big box clubs on Ratchadapisek Road. [read more here]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/07/23/booze-ban-create-pockets-prohibition


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2015-07-23

[daoyai]

More evidence that the current "govt." should be a care taker govt. and wait for an elected body to make changes and decisions affecting the country, they are so in over their heads.

[bino]

Maybe its too simple, but why don't they just ask customers who look like they might be of student age for ID

to show they are over 20 years old which is the legal age to buy alcohol.

This has absolutely no earning potential for the cops. They are probably rubbing their hands together with glee in anticipation of this - being able to shake down a whole bunch of new establishments, or increase their "take" from those that pay already.

[zaphod reborn]

More evidence that the current "govt." should be a care taker govt. and wait for an elected body to make changes and decisions affecting the country, they are so in over their heads.

Funny, because about 20 states in the US have similar laws. When I was a student at UC Berkeley, no takeaway alcohol sales were allowed within 1 mile of campus. But, you're probably from the UK or EU where free flow is the rule. I wouldn't expect you to be worldly enough to understand that the government is following a model which has been used elsewhere in the world.

[English_M_in_Bkk]

More evidence that the current "govt." should be a care taker govt. and wait for an elected body to make changes and decisions affecting the country, they are so in over their heads.

Funny, because about 20 states in the US have similar laws. When I was a student at UC Berkeley, no takeaway alcohol sales were allowed within 1 mile of campus. But, you're probably from the UK or EU where free flow is the rule. I wouldn't expect you to be worldly enough to understand that the government is following a model which has been used elsewhere in the world.

And just as retarded where ever it is implemented

[daoyai]

More evidence that the current "govt." should be a care taker govt. and wait for an elected body to make changes and decisions affecting the country, they are so in over their heads.

Funny, because about 20 states in the US have similar laws. When I was a student at UC Berkeley, no takeaway alcohol sales were allowed within 1 mile of campus. But, you're probably from the UK or EU where free flow is the rule. I wouldn't expect you to be worldly enough to understand that the government is following a model which has been used elsewhere in the world.

Since you do not know me your guess at my origins and "worldly" quotient is pointless to put it politely. When my dad attended UC Berkeley his fraternity house had a huge ornate beer keg situated in the entrance hall with steins of the frat brothers displayed around it. Things have changed in the U.S. since then.... they can probably now smoke weed on campus so that may be an improvement. My opinion of this new Thai law and those that signed it remain unchanged.

[MZurf]

This will probably just fizzle out. Hard to enforce and just another earning potential for the BIB. I see that the "beer ladies" are back in some of the restaurants I visit so there is another rule/law that has been implemented but they've stopped enforcing.

[madmitch]

The Coconuts article seems to think that all schools are covered whereas the original article only refers to universities and technical colleges. The translation in the Coconuts article does use the term tertiary which means higher education, i.e. university, so it's probably not as restrictive as their article states.

It's going to put a lot of restaurants and bars out of business anyway.

[Always18]

More knee-jerk "controls" from Thailand's unelected, authoritarian nannies...........

[swoods58]

And how did that prohibition work out for you?

[zakk9]

It would probably have more effect if they banned alcohol sales from all convenience stores. Easy access to alcohol means more drinking, and in Thailand, access is absurdly easy.

[zakk9]

[Thai at Heart]

Thinking of the city centre of my old town, that basically makes a 1km exclusion zone in the city centre. There are about 5 schools in the centre.

[DavisH]

A ban is pointless (just enforce the law as it is). Students will continue to use the motocy taxi riders to purchase alcohol/cigarettes for them anyway. There's no surprise why Thai teens never seem to grow up...the are always being dictated to...

Yet in my university we had a bar 100m from my department on campus. A beer went down well with nachos at lunch time Lord knows how I finished a PhD there...

[impulse]

Holey Moley. That's Soi Cowboy... The whole length of it.

[sinom]

A newspaper report states Thailand leading the way in banning alcohol sales.

piffle! The bars and clubs will simply relocate ! (if their businesses suffer!)

Been around any provincial campus sites where there are hundreds of small apartment blocks designed for students ? These are well "off-campus" and the nightlife is vibrant !

Students will just find the nearest legal (or illegal) place to drink ................. get real people!

[zakk9]

A newspaper report states Thailand leading the way in banning alcohol sales.

piffle! The bars and clubs will simply relocate ! (if their businesses suffer!)

Been around any provincial campus sites where there are hundreds of small apartment blocks designed for students ? These are well "off-campus" and the nightlife is vibrant !

Students will just find the nearest legal (or illegal) place to drink ................. get real people!

The students, as well as most others in Thailand, get their alcohol from 7-Eleven and other convenience stores. I doubt that there are many countries in the world where access to alcohol is as easy as here.

[pinkpanther99]

This would be more believable if the headline read...

“New law to prevent schools from operating within 300m of anywhere that sells alcohol”

[Sydebolle]

Well, that explains, why on Cowboy some 59 new hotels are opening by the end of this month

[Chang_paarp]

The Coconuts article seems to think that all schools are covered whereas the original article only refers to universities and technical colleges. The translation in the Coconuts article does use the term tertiary which means higher education, i.e. university, so it's probably not as restrictive as their article states.

It's going to put a lot of restaurants and bars out of business anyway.

It has been illegal to sell alcohol within 300m of a school for some time (8 years that I can remember. It was during the Thaksin era.) A friend of mine had a bar in BKK and the powers that be decided to build a school across the road from his place, the local BIB said it was not a problem for him as the students would not go into his place.

[ChrisY1]

A newspaper report states Thailand leading the way in banning alcohol sales.

piffle! The bars and clubs will simply relocate ! (if their businesses suffer!)

Been around any provincial campus sites where there are hundreds of small apartment blocks designed for students ? These are well "off-campus" and the nightlife is vibrant !

Students will just find the nearest legal (or illegal) place to drink ................. get real people!

The students, as well as most others in Thailand, get their alcohol from 7-Eleven and other convenience stores. I doubt that there are many countries in the world where access to alcohol is as easy as here.

In most of Europe, alchohol is available everywhere......corner stores, supermarkets etc

[zakk9]

A newspaper report states Thailand leading the way in banning alcohol sales.

piffle! The bars and clubs will simply relocate ! (if their businesses suffer!)

Been around any provincial campus sites where there are hundreds of small apartment blocks designed for students ? These are well "off-campus" and the nightlife is vibrant !

Students will just find the nearest legal (or illegal) place to drink ................. get real people!

The students, as well as most others in Thailand, get their alcohol from 7-Eleven and other convenience stores. I doubt that there are many countries in the world where access to alcohol is as easy as here.

In most of Europe, alchohol is available everywhere......corner stores, supermarkets etc

Thailand has around 15,000 convenience stores that are open 24 hours per day selling alcohol with few restrictions, some of it (cheap whisky) at absurdly low prices. I know of no European country that has anything similar. In addition, there's a culture around alcohol in Europe. Although many drink to get drunk, most drink for the enjoyment of a good drink. In Thailand, with very few exceptions, people drink to get drunk. Period.

I'm astonished by how many Thais who frequently publish photos of themselves on FB with a bottle of whisky, as if the fact that they are drinking somehow increases their status in society.