Nine New Anti-alcohol Measures Planned

[Jai Dee]

Nine new anti-alcohol measures planned

The Public Health Ministry is going to ask the Cabinet to instruct the Public Relations Department (PRD) to ban alcohol advertising on TV and radio 24 hours a day, according to the Disease Control Department's deputy director-general Dr Narong Sahamethapat.

Narong yesterday disclosed that the ministry would raise the issue at the Cabinet meeting on January 9.

Currently, the PRD enforces a ban between 10pm and 5am.

"This means the PRD has the right to enforce the ban. Now it depends on whether the Cabinet will see the benefits of the ban," Narong said.

PRD director general Pramote Ratvinij separately said his department would wait to hear the Cabinet's decision first.

"We will respond to the Cabinet resolution," he said.

In November, the Public Health Ministry's move to ban all forms of alcohol advertising via a regulation issued by the Food and Drug Administration hit a major snag when the Council of State invalidated the regulation.

However, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla remained committed to his efforts to reduce alcohol consumption in the country.

As part of the campaign, Mongkol yesterday said his ministry was going to propose nine measures - including a tax hike on rice whiskey and beer - to the Cabinet in early January.

Following the third meeting of the Alcohol Consumption Control Committee, Mongkol said the ministry would also launch internal regulations to have all of its offices alcohol-free and set up regional centres to gather complaints and train some officials to act as a "mini FBI" to ensure the regulations are enforced.

The nine national measures included a push to hike the tax on rice whiskey and beer, a ban on duty-free liquor and the separation of alcoholic drinks from the Free Trade Agreement list, Mongkol said.

He said he believed the tax measures would be more effective than the alcohol advertising ban as world-wide studies had come to the same conclusion: ad bans prevent new drinkers but tax measures affect all groups.

The second measure is to reduce people's access to alcohol by limiting the production of alcoholic drinks and the issuing of distribution licences and placing warning pictures on la-bels.

The bid to control alcohol advertising - and eventually stop it completely - was listed as the third measure, while the fourth was to introduce an alcohol control act.

The fifth was to establish alcoholism clinics inside provincial and district hospitals. The sixth was to support the use of alcohol tax money in campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption and prevent problems stemming from drunkenness.

The seventh was to push for alcohol controls to be an important policy of provincial and local administrations and the eighth to support the anti-alcohol campaigns and alliance networks.

The ninth measure is to support research and knowledge ma-nagement to support control measures and evaluate implemented ones.

Mongkol said statistics from 1999 to 2001 found that Thais had elevated their beer-drinking rank from 102nd to 85th in the world - while their whiskey-drinking rank moved from sixth to fifth.

Alcohol was listed in the top three causes of death in Thailand, he said, adding the Central Institute of Forensic Science reported that most people killed in road accidents were found to have a high level of alcohol in their blood.

Source: The Nation - 29 December 2006

[LaoPo]

The second measure is to reduce people's access to alcohol by limiting the production of alcoholic drinks ...........

Well, the big alcohol moguls have something to think and talk about....

LP

[astral]

Perhaps they missed the research that shows that the consumption of Red Wine is good for the health.

That must be why wine is taxed at such a high rate.

[Jai Dee]

More warning images and labels added to alcoholic beverages

The Ministry of Public Health would be adding warning images and labels to alcoholic beverages.

The deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control, Dr. Narong Sahamethapat (ณรงค์ สหเมธาพัฒน์), revealed that the Committee on National Alcohol Consumption Control would be altering the warning labels on alcoholic beverages to resemble the warning images and labels on cigarette packets.

Alcoholic beverage companies would furthermore be prohibited from holding sweepstakes on television while the alcoholic beverage advertisement industry regulations would fall under Legislative Committee protocol which dictates that alcoholic beverage advertisements would be banned 24 hours instead of being allowed airtime from 5 - 10 PM.

The deputy director general added that the minister of public health would deliver the matter to the Public Relations Department to consider during the upcoming Cabinet meeting on January 9 2007.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 29 December 2006

[In the Rai!]

Nine new anti-alcohol measures planned

The nine national measures included a push to hike the tax on rice whiskey and beer, a ban on duty-free liquor and the separation of alcoholic drinks from the Free Trade Agreement list, Mongkol said.

Source: The Nation - 29 December 2006

Nooooooooo! I love cheap beer..

[pnustedt]

Mongkol said statistics from 1999 to 2001 found that Thais had elevated their beer-drinking rank from 102nd to 85th in the world

Isn't that when Yorky came to Thailand?

[Jai Dee]

Anti-alcohol organizations disapproved decision of Council of State to continue advertisements of alcoholic drinks

Over 50 representatives from a network of 200 anti-alcohol organizations gathered at the Office of the Council of State today (Dec 29), voicing their protest against the Council of State’s resolution for allowing advertisements of alcoholic drinks to be displayed.

The Council of State earlier stated that the announcement of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not have the authority to prohibit the advertisements of alcoholic beverages. However, the coordinator of the network, Mr. Kamron Chudecha, indicated that his network will continue to push forward the measure to ban advertisements of alcoholic drinks without fearing the dark influences.

The network will gather once again on January 4th, and the representatives will hand a document to the Minister attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr. Thirapat Serirangsan, demanding for the Public Relations Department’s announcement on the control of the advertisements of alcoholic beverages to be adjusted. Thus, the advertisements would be totally banned from the media instead of from 5 AM to 10 PM.

Nevertheless, no disorders took place during the gathering, and the peaceful protest took only an hour.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 29 December 2006

[aaaaaa]

as I recall, there was a news report saying that Thaksin was only 4th rich person in Thailand and the #1 is guy the owner of Thai Beverage. surely he is not so enthusiastic about all this fuss !

would be interesting to observe how this new rules / laws will be enfored and result of them. hopefully not as the scandalous "war on drugs" (shoot on the spot style) !

"dry law" in US in '30s (or 20s ?) and in Russia in '80s under Gorbachev and perhaps many such attempts in other countries didn't do much to stop or reduce alchohol cunsumption.

[hammered]

Increasing the tax on things deemed harmful is probably the only way to try and reduce abuse of them. Well at least the the increased revenue may cover some or all of the health costs incurred by the state for alcohol (or smoke) related disease. Maybe earmarking by law a certain percentage of tax collected on alcohol (or smoke) to health expenditure would be a way to go. On another topic why not legalise certain other drugs and do similar with tax on them?

[Patex]

...Nevertheless, no disorders took place during the gathering, and the peaceful protest took only an hour...

Hey,

they were all sober - what would one expect??

[aaaaaa]

Increasing the tax on things deemed harmful is probably the only way to try and reduce abuse of them....

not sure about that. the more restrictions - the more ways around them, as saying goes. it is a humand nature to find loopeholes in laws and trade in "illegal" goods. demand would sky-rocket! accordingly - the revenues of dealers who sell it on "black market". and a lot of illegal production will spring up.

[hammered]

Increasing the tax on things deemed harmful is probably the only way to try and reduce abuse of them....

not sure about that. the more restrictions - the more ways around them, as saying goes. it is a humand nature to find loopeholes in laws and trade in "illegal" goods. demand would sky-rocket! accordingly - the revenues of dealers who sell it on "black market". and a lot of illegal production will spring up.

Maybe to some extent especially at the botom end of the market. Mind you every village seems to have its own tax free locally produced lao khao now so maybe not a lot of change. However, with an increase tax revenue will increase which if linked to expediture on health is no bad thing, and most who can afford it seem to prefer brand name drinks anyway. Alcohol is big business and even with some underground stuff there is room for excise increases. Funnily enough when I first came to Thailand smuggled cigarettes were very common. Now as tax has been increased weirdly enough smuggled cigarettes are far less common than they were when cheap! Go figure. I cant.

[eugengeri]

Funnily enough when I first came to Thailand smuggled cigarettes were very common. Now as tax has been increased weirdly enough smuggled cigarettes are far less common than they were when cheap! Go figure. I cant.

If you speak from black market copy cigarettes...

...maybe I can. Very bad quality and you don't know what you smoke :D .

[hammered]

Funnily enough when I first came to Thailand smuggled cigarettes were very common. Now as tax has been increased weirdly enough smuggled cigarettes are far less common than they were when cheap! Go figure. I cant.

If you speak from black market copy cigarettes...

...maybe I can. Very bad quality and you don't know what you smoke :D .

Actually they were mostly US brand name ciggys and considered better quality than the local versions!

[aaaaaa]

Mind you every village seems to have its own tax free locally produced lao khao now so maybe not a lot of change.

exactly!

my wife told me her childhood stories. a lot of people used to make some sort of wisky at home for sale to earn some money. she said she used to help her mom doing that. till one day one of their neighbours got busted - perhaps didn't pay police "tea money" enough or in time....

now it is just on the bigger scale - big guys punishing some other big guys for not getting much bigger "tea money". no doubt that after a while law will be changed or something once the matter is settled.

[chuchok]

Funnily enough when I first came to Thailand smuggled cigarettes were very common. Now as tax has been increased weirdly enough smuggled cigarettes are far less common than they were when cheap! Go figure. I cant.

If you speak from black market copy cigarettes...

...maybe I can. Very bad quality and you don't know what you smoke :D .

Actually they were mostly US brand name ciggys and considered better quality than the local versions!

They may have been branded product,but I can assure you from my experience,that you didn't always get a great product. I used to buy them.After a while, it was better (If you can call it that!) to stick with the local brand.

[Jai Dee]

ALCOHOL :Campaigners ask Council of State to forward controls bill

Anti-alcohol campaigners and alliance networks have urged the Council of State to consider the Alcohol Control Bill and then propose it to the National Legislative Assembly, the network's co-ordinator Khamron Chudecha said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference at the Council of State office, Khamron said alcohol caused Bt1 billion in losses per day and created 700 new drinkers every day.

He said they were disappointed with the Council of State's decision that the Food and Drug Administration had no mandate to comprehensively ban alcohol adverts.

Although banning alcohol adverts would not solve all the problems, it should be followed by other measures such as higher taxes, stricter licences for selling alcoholic drinks and zoning, Khamron suggested

Source: The Nation - 30 December 2006