Should alcohol be more expensive in Thailand?

[Nowisee]

yes... triple charge for alcohol, food, parks, rentals... everything... run EVERYONE out, only ones left should be bus loads from the north staying at discount hotels eating over priced tasteless buffets...and when the bubble bursts LOS will be left out in the middle of the dried up rice fields and the smart farangs will be laying on the beaches of Vietnam or sitting along the Mekong in Laos drinking good beers.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Nowisee

[theguyfromanotherforum]

look at a bunch of crybabies whining about alcohol tax.

it's alcohol. who cares. it's bad for you.

[Tanlic]

All this discussion to come to an obvious conclusion....

En o spells NO!!!!!

Take away the littke enjoyment poor thai people have...are you effin mad? Plus Thailand need tourists by the thoussnds if not millions and soon....most stupi question ever asked on TV or what?

[reckless]

Ehm? No.

They might as well as just tell tourists to spend their money in another country.

[deckape]

Good Lord this thread should break the forum record for number of posts.

[jmccarty]

Maybe only tax the falangs! That should work!

[sawadee1947]

yes, double or triple price would be ok

[Morakot]

Only Government activists working with the tax office would be pushing for this more revenue

Not really. The driving force behind all this are overzealous, orthodox fanatics -- the same bunch who campaign for Thailand to be "officially" a Buddhist country. They are jumping on the Junta "reform" bandwagon to see their causes through.

[Morakot]

yes, double or triple price would be ok

You clearly must be drunk!

[marquis22]

No ...if a person wants to get drunk he/she will no matter the price.

Why should us who enjoy a beer without getting drunk have to pay more?

[sawadee1947]

yes, double or triple price would be ok

You clearly must be drunk!

yeah, the very last time before they might increase the price...

[sawadee1947]

I'm just going to the fridge to get a pear cider, £2.20 $3 100bht, for 2 ltrs in Lidl. I wish I could find that in Thailand. ครับโชคดี

Cheers

yeah, and don't forget the reasonable prices for wine....starts with 2.99 AUD...

[Bangkok Barry]

Apart from lao kao, drink in Thailand is more expensive than many other countries in the region or Europe. Add to that the greed that bar owners add with doubling up or even trebling retail prices makes for an expensive night out. I can get a decent pint of beer in the UK for 2-3 quid yet a 330ml bottle of leo or Heineken in most bars is at least if not more than that. I can buy cans of Speckled Hen in Tesco for a quid...yes only 50 Baht for a big can of decent beer yet its 38 for a half size leo here...Beer in Thailand has almost doubled in the past 6 years, how far do they want to go

I can get small cans of a decent beer for the equivalent of 10 baht in Spain. The price of beer in Thailand is ridiculous. No wonder the owner of the Singha brewery is one of the richest men in Thailand.

[Saan]

....'price measures have been proven to be a primary way to solve the drinking problem, especially among new drinkers'.

I agree, double the price for those under 30 and then halve it for us old soaks.

[Commogwinto]

look at a bunch of crybabies whining about alcohol tax.

it's alcohol. who cares. it's bad for you.

So what! At least you're suitably impregnated against all the anti's.....

[georgemandm]

Oh brilliant idea! Drive even more of the too poor even for the locally brewed shit 'beer/whiskeys' to Lao khao why don't you. Cretins.

I think it is great idea the more tax on beer and smoke the better.

Who cares if Thais drink Lao Khao , the Greeks drink s??t like that as well .

[Hooliganzone]

The article says quite clearly that: "18,000 Thais die of alcohol-related problems annually while there are around 260,000 new drinkers every year, according to the National Statistic Office. These are some of the highest stats in Asia, putting Thailand among the region’s biggest alcohol consumers".

Also it is the Thais that are putting the burden on "Medical costs for alcohol-related maladies". Tourists and Farlangs have to pay threw the nose for their treatment if they don't have insurance.

So the answer is quite simple yes make a big Tax increase for Thai people buying alcohol and leave the price the same for Tourists and Farlangs seeing that, Quote “The government should not support sin-products that harm the quality of life of Thai people.". Not Tourists and Farlangs, this should be no problem to implement as Thailand is very good at using two tier pricing, example National parks, Zoo's, Waterparks, etc, etc, almost anything that has an admission fee.

But they will never do it, what making Thais pay more than farlangs its unheard of...

Just another excuse to charge everybody more and it will not resolve the alcohol abuse problem that Thai people have.

I can see Low Khow production increasing massive. I wonder if you can buy shares in it maybe its time to jump on the band wagon...

Edited March 3, 2016 by Hooliganzone

[little mary sunshine]

Yes.... They should add a B50 tax on each can/bottle of beer

It would help,with the medical costs and drive lots of the

Drunks to Cambodia.

[Hooliganzone]

Yes.... They should add a B50 tax on each can/bottle of beer

It would help,with the medical costs and drive lots of the

Drunks to Cambodia.

Never heard such rubbish. Most alcohol related products are already more expensive than Europe. Thats it drive the tourists away, keep up the good work Thailand.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Hooliganzone

[Morakot]

"So ... why don't they show a photo of a drunk Thai?"

Because they were too lazy to look for one. Here, this will keep you happy.

What kind of alcohol is this?

Edited March 3, 2016 by Morakot

[cheapcanuck]

Heck NO

[BigUnMerican]

Its already more expensive than in America.

The only people who come to Thailand to binge drink are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

$10 for a bottle of imported English beer?

Yeah, right.

[etbowe]

1 billion Thai baht is equal to 28 million US dollars not the stated 28 thousand

[Lupatria]

...and to show how evil the stuff is they show a picture of a drunk farrang.

I assume Dr Sawitree Assanangkornchai, eyes some kind of prohibition so some people can get the really big bucks out of alcohol. It did work well for the mafia elsewhere. Maybe he should visit Scandinavia to see how drunk people get when they use the ferries on the weekends as the only source of cheap alcohol.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Lupatria

[BSJ]

"So ... why don't they show a photo of a drunk Thai?"

Because they were too lazy to look for one. Here, this will keep you happy.

What kind of alcohol is this?

The blue label bottles are what the Thai's think is whisky (what other posters have called Lao Kho)......but drain cleaner would be better for them!

Edited March 3, 2016 by BSJ

[MockingJay]

I think stupidity should be taxed in Thailand! If this comes to pass, LOS would be the richest country in the world, because in addition to a high percentage of the local population seemingly being full immune to brain activity, a good portion of visiting tourists seem to acquire short term lobotomy upon immigration check in.

[Martinm2345]

No need to raise tax on alcohol, the reasoning according to the article is to reduce the number of people abusing or "being drunk" the tax was raised a few years ago and it had not accomplished the goal. Perhaps you should take the tax that has already been collected and spend that on education. Where is th tax revenue going now?

[mankondang]

A Thai friend of mine runs a small rural hardware store in northern Thailand. You know what he sells lots of? rubber cement/glue. I asked him not to sell it to youngsters. He just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "hey, if they don't get it from me, they'll buy it from someone else, and I won't get the money."

The more important issue is: pot and hemp should be legalized in Thailand. Hemp because no one in the world every got stoned from hemp, and it's highly useful, nutritious crop with many practical uses. Re pot. I've never heard of anyone causing a serious traffic accident from being high on pot. Neither have I ever heard of a wife-beater or rapist being fueled by pot. Alcohol is the only legal recreational drug in SE Asia, and alcohol peddlers want it to stay that way. It has nothing to do with common sense or safety, and everything to do with the cartels who control alcohol sales and distribution. Who knows, maybe doctors and hospitals are in on the deal also, because alcohol leads to many problems which compel people to go and spend money for medical and pharma drugs. Emergency wards would have less than half the activity they currently have if alcohol were banned. Same for insurance companies.

Whilst your post makes some good points I would argue that not all alcohol is the same. Compare Lao Khao/Whte Lightning with a Single Malt/Chardonnay and watch the differing effects upon the imbiber. It's the quality of the alcohol, not simply the amount.

Ethyl alcohol (alcohol ethanol), or ethanol, is the intoxicating ingredient found in beer, wine (inc expensive Chardonnay), liquors, spirits (inc expensive Single Malt). Ethanol is ethanol, and does not vary in quality, no matter on how you dress it up, package it or mix it. The psychology of advertising would like us to think otherwise, as we ourselves like to do when we require a defence mechanism. Cheers.

[louse1953]

Since the OP picture shows a farang passed out from alcohol use, I guess the good doctor just wants a higher tax on alcohol consumed by farangs. Finally, someone who truly cares about farangs in Thailand...so refreshing.

To be fair i don't think the doctor had anything to do with the clik bait photo.

[Dorian232]

There should not be any increase in the price of alcohol, I drink very little so no effect on me, but I do not agree with taxing things working people like, what should be better enforced is the sale of drinks to persons who clearly have already had sufficient and it should not be allowed to drink alcohol in the street, public places other than the beach or parks. There needs to be strict penaltities for persons who are drunk and disorderly. Penalize the bad people not all for the faults of the few.