Minimum Age Raised To 25 For Buyers Of Booze

[headtrip]

this will cheer up the yabba dealers....

I agree with this, if alcohol is not available, young people will turn to something that is readily available....Like Yaba. And the black market economy will explode!

[Unknown]

this will cheer up the yabba dealers....

I agree with this, if alcohol is not available, young people will turn to something that is readily available....Like Yaba. And the black market economy will explode!

Alcohol will be available. Most people younger than 25 know people older than 25...

[johnwills]

Rather than trying to enforce an age restriction of 25, which we all know will not work, why not try to remove some of the drinks that are available such as Lao Kao,. Its cheap and gets you wasted pretty quick from what I have seen, seems to be the drink of choice for the teens around where I live.

[bri1guy]

That is f*#+ !!!! Crazy & ridiculous Maybe 21 but not 25 they will be loosing lots of $$$ in many ways and what about if other tourists until 25 , are they now breaking the law if they drink?

I thought having bars close early or at all is bad enough, they need to lighten up!

[opothai]

great law

telling the young up to the age of 25 will only lead to resentment,

remember your own formative rebellious years, from 14 to 18

well the thais can be rebellious from 14 to 25

first you must give the young, hope and aspiration then they will change for the better by themselves, but to take away privaliges and hope they will change is IMHO not going to work.

if they make it a blankett law for all 25 year olds not to drink, then see some serious downturn in young travellers and some serious downturn in employment figures.

as McEenroe used to say

YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS

[Cyberstar]

Obviously, the makers of this particular law, didn't think as far as how to enforce it --- are they going to put the majority of their youth in jail?

[Unknown]

telling the young up to the age of 25 will only lead to resentment

It sure will and achieves no purpose.

Will make them want to get booze, just to show they can.

[BlackArtemis]

I am looking forward to drinking with a bunch of 40 years between the hours of 9pm and 10pm, since that seems the way it will go.

But on a serious note, nothing will happen, the police force is so ###### corrupt that bars can pay them off and pass on the cost to the patrons. Also the patrons can just bring an extra 200baht out with them everytime they want to drink.

[khonkaen man]

I understand the intention of the law but believe it will not truly result in a reduction in underage drinking as with many laws in Thailand the issue is not the law itself but the enforcement of the law. People are supposed to have licenses to drive motorbikes but many in the rural ares do not (and would not be old enough to have them), bars are supposed to stop serving alcohol on Buddha days and election days but there are always many well known (and connected) locations where it is possible to drink openly on those days.... etc etc

Unfortunately I believe it will just be another opportunoity for the lower level enforcers to make more money in on the spot fines and for the well connected (i.e. "service charge" paying) locations to continue to sell to whoever they see fit.

Early on in Thakins regime they appeared to understand this issue and try to get the existing laws enforced (for example- with the closing hours), but it caused so much backlash that the process stopped.

It is an extremely complex and broad issue to deal with as it requires a total revamp at all levels of government - employ the right people, pay them well, hold out against the protests, threats etc and then we would end up having the ability to enforce the laws. Also, there needs to be a better education system in the schools in general so that the youth have a better chance of good jobs and they need to be educated about the problems of alcohol and other substance abuse.

Maybe then theywould not have to be so drastic (25 is not really the youth they are talking about) and perhaps there would be a chance to achieve the intention of the law.

I agree that it is something that needs to be tackled, but just do not hold out much hope that it will be done so very quickly as writing a law takes very little money, but educting the youth and having the right administrators and enforcers takes a huge amount of money.

[Ta22]

OK .. let me try to imagine ...

Me going to the local Bar - ALL waitress is above 25 - arggg... kinda old ..

Gosh all the young girl is on juice .. nobody drink beer and acol with me .. anymore ..

Me stop going bars.. .. change to drinking juice whahahahhahaha

good for my health .. hm... maybe sex life too whahah

...

Bar and pub would never be the same without those cute sexy young girl whahahah

25 is too hard ..how about 21 -- not that huge a gap .. and the girl still look nice and cut ..

i too agree people too young should not drink .. cos there create alot of problem due to lack of self control ..

especialy girl.. under 18 should not drink ..

[khonkaen man]

Reduce the taxes on the lighter beers eg. Heineken,Tiger, San Miguel etc to make them cheap enough for the Thais to drink and hike the taxes on that strong Thai beer. In any other society the stronger the alcohol the greater the tax. The thai dont really want to drink them crap drinks like Chang and Singha and the only farangs that do dont have much money( and you'll be leaving in the visa shake up)

The problem here is the brewing families mafia won't let alternative beers be sold here without their fingers being in the pie and massive taxes being imposed. For a massive tourist destination like Thailand the choice of beers is poor. As previous posters have said hike the cost of spirits produced here eg,Mekhong Sansong 100 pipers to the same level as Smirnoff ,JD,Gordons Gin etc.

Finally Thais are not purely influenced by advertising. The greatest influence on Thais is seeing there parents getting shit faced on the above mentioned crap beers and spirits.

[wilko]

Will the Thai govt be taking away their right to join the army or police. Will "under age" drinkers be arrested by "underage" policemen?

Where I come from at 18 you're an adult and have FULL adult rights

[wilko]

Khon Khaenman - There is in this overall scheme is a plan to "rationalise@ the duty and relate it to the amount (%) of alcohol in the bottle. This will come in the near future, but it will make Lao Khaow as expensive as any other equivalent spirit.

As for imported, well I guess they'll just have extra import duty to pay.

Somehow I can't see someone who's been a drinker for 6 or 7 years getting up tomorrow and saying....

"That's it....no more drink for me!" - Can you???

Edited October 14, 2006 by wilko

[marc11864]

GOOD LORD!!! How am i gonna get LAID now?

[sinbinjack]

This may be hard for some people to understand ,but why do most people seem to think that alcohol is an important part of enjoying yourself .I for one would not shed many tears if there was none anywhere ,not just Thailand ,some people may even think this is a better holiday destination when there are no young drunks about.

[wilko]

I understand the problems caused by alcohol...but how would you like it if I legislated against you at 25 from doing something that at 26 is OK?

[wilko]

GOOD LORD!!! How am i gonna get LAID now?

I presume you're saying that anyone under 25 would have to be drunk before they slept with you?

OR

You're under 25 and have to be drunk before you could sleep with the type of person willing to sleep with you.

[BlackArtemis]

GOOD LORD!!! How am i gonna get LAID now?

I presume you're saying that anyone under 25 would have to be drunk before they slept with you?

OR

You're under 25 and have to be drunk before you could sleep with the type of person willing to sleep with you.

######... But so true... sexpats

Personally I like sangsom and 100 pipers, I wouldn't want to see a hike in price, then again the bar I goes to gives out a free bottle for the first ten tables, so I rarely pay a big bill.

[englishoak]

No need to panic yet . I don't expect this will go through and be enforced, if it did it would damage too much business. The implications if enforced correctly are huge.

I hope this is just a the normal Thai posturing and it will probably vanish without a trace in the near future. If not ?

Well I can't see the economy exactly getting a boost from all the money that isn't spent on booze

Gotta say the Thai gov is realy rather good at these stupid ideas and this ones a peach

[Ijustwannateach]

Just wonder what the attitude is going to be of the current 20-24 year olds who've been going to bars & discos & drinking for the last 1-5 years and are now going to have their rights curtailed.... Not to mention the 19 yo's who're just about to have a birthday and get let into the bigger discos, only to have to wait 5 more years... it's not going to be pretty.

"Steven"

[Chaz1819]

If "education" worked, no one in the US would smoke, drink, practice unsafe sex, take drugs, or drive without a seatbelt. If you believe that "education" will work in Thailand, you are mistakened.

Smoking in the US dropped 25% in the past 8 years, simply because the price of cigarettes has climbed substantially. Education didn't cause anyone to forego smoking.

This is simply not true - and for the record 25 IS silly and we all know it - bo one is commenting on the fact that this came about because "People Spoke Up" - I think THAT is a great point to talk about! The drinking is a problem, not limited to Thailand - they are simply responding - maybe not correctly - to an on going problem in the community.

Education did work! Young people have been educated so much that smoking is "Just not done" - down dramaticly - countrywide, same for drugs - yes - before you get all jumpy - it IS still a problem, but progress!

Fatalities from drunk drivers - down dramaticaly - stiffer penalties did it - who are we kidding.

Unsafe sex - you telling me education did not work? We educated - it dropped dramaticly - education slowed, people forgot - falalities rose.

Drinking can be an "easy fix" for many people - it is a problem world wide - education, stiffer and more realistic/enforcale laws .... it all helps.

But please - do not help people to think education does not work!

[Totster]

Just wonder what the attitude is going to be of the current 20-24 year olds who've been going to bars & discos & drinking for the last 1-5 years and are now going to have their rights curtailed.... Not to mention the 19 yo's who're just about to have a birthday and get let into the bigger discos, only to have to wait 5 more years... it's not going to be pretty.

"Steven"

Thats a major point..

To take away someones rights overnight is never going to be accepted. If the Thai government are set on doing this is should be phased in over a number of years.. for example over the next 10 years gradually change the age limit.

Another way to ease the population into such a radical age limit change is to say that anyone born before a certain year is subject ot the new restriction, for example young children of about 10years and below will be subject to the new law.

Even so.. I still think 25 is far too high.. stopping adults from making their own choices is wrong.

And to those of you saying this is a good thing.. I'll bet you are well over 25yrs.. well just imagine if they raised the limit to 1 year above your present age now.. would you be so happy then ?

totster

[Jarrod]

Wow. This a pretty serious legislation which I think is an over-reaction. I presume that under 25 year old Thai can get married, drive a car, be held criminally responsible and be sent into the army to be shot dead. Yet they are not allowed to buy alcohol. Has someone gone a bit stupid or what. This type of draconian attitude has never worked anywhere in the world and is nearly impossible to police. Please do not get me wrong. I never drink because I don't like it. But I think others should be free to drink as they see fit. Also, I feel that Thai people should not be globally considered as irresponsible by their own government. Some maybe...but don't punish everyone.

[Hollywood]

Same as many countries around the world...you can join the army and "kill and be killed" but don't drink that evil beer !

[jamman]

Minimum age raised to 25 for buyers of booze

Perhaps we should all recognise this and not start getting off track and undermining this positive action which makes lots of sense from what i,ve / we,ve witnessed in recent times.

Yes, we wouldn't want to undermine a new public policy with discussion or debate. Being a dissident is being anti-social; nearly criminal.

[jamman]

Wow. This a pretty serious legislation which I think is an over-reaction. I presume that under 25 year old Thai can get married, drive a car, be held criminally responsible and be sent into the army to be shot dead. Yet they are not allowed to buy alcohol. Has someone gone a bit stupid or what. This type of draconian attitude has never worked anywhere in the world and is nearly impossible to police. Please do not get me wrong. I never drink because I don't like it. But I think others should be free to drink as they see fit. Also, I feel that Thai people should not be globally considered as irresponsible by their own government. Some maybe...but don't punish everyone.

A twenty four year old westerner is expected to have enough personal character to be seen as an individual. You can see how Thai's are more family oriented, a nation of Mama's boys and twenty somethings asking for permission to stay out late. The sense of individual self blooms late, if at all.

And this is reflected all the way up to the government, which sees it's role to be Paternal - to tell the individuals how to be good social actors, what is appropriate, what is not. It is natural for Government officials to see their role this way, as they are enmeshed in this sense that morals come from Parents. The state could instead foster education and free creative thinking, trusting that an individual given all good will come to their own good choices, and that bad choices and the ability to make them are a necessary evil to personal and social growth.

Edited October 15, 2006 by jamman

[jamman]

this law i like.

underaged farang teachers will be sober in class on Monday and they will not be able to buy alcohol on fridays after school, when they go out with their underaged students.

I doubt the law will have real world impact on alcohol availability.

The legal drinking age in Canada is 18, and the penalties for selling to minors is stiff. The only difference that makes in Canada is that you won't see people under the age of 18 drinking in pubs. Canadian teens guzzle and toke with gusto.

And I can't imagine Thai mom and pop shop owners strictly carding their customers.

Edited October 15, 2006 by jamman

[jamman]

It's an arrogance if officials at the top think they can legislate alcohol consumption. Look at societies real world actions towards the police. Do they look to the law and the police as a good parent that should be obeyed? Or do bar owners keep lookout mice posted to watch for the cat?

It is the character of the young to think that they know more than their elders, that they know what is best for them.

I have never heard of any society, modern or historic, living in forest or city, that did not know that sweet liquids ferment, and regularly drink what makes them feel better.

Something that makes you feel better, even if it has negative consequences, can not be controlled by laws - especially abstinance only laws.

[OlRedEyes]

I have never seen a society desperately trying to hang on to 'culture' that did not generate serious problems. Culture is a word that is bandied about in Thailand like I've never quite come accross anywhere else. It smells of desperation, the old trying to hang on to the past in the face of scary change, leaving the young to find their own way in a new world without wise guidance.

Culture is a survival product for a society in a certain environment. As the environment changes, so should the culture, else serious cracks will appear. In todays world, how can any country be expected to cope sucessfully if their adults of 35 are still treated and think like children.

'Thai culture' as it is so strongly advocated, will never work in modern life. Ever again. It has to change. If that change is not guided in schools and home, the change will be traumatic, but it will happen.

New faces, same stupidity.

[FRK]

Minimum age raised to 25 for buyers of booze

BANGKOK: -- Health authorities have stepped up measures to curb alcohol consumption among youth by moving up the minimum legal age of buyers from 18 to 25 years. Narong Sahamethapat, deputy chief of the Disease Control Department, said yesterday that the idea was proposed by a network of parents early this year during a public hearing of a draft bill to control alcoholic drinks.

The measure to raise the legal minimum age of buyers is part of a national campaign to save Thai youth from alcohol abuse, he said, adding that it has already been incorporated into Article 28 of the draft.

--Bangkok Post 2006-10-14

I've searched the Post (and the Nation) on all sorts of keywords from this post and can't find this alleged article, or any other mention of this new law (except months-old articles about proposals to do it). I'm skeptical.