Stores get 30 days to move booze off shelf
Ban aimed at shops within 300m of schools
Convenience and grocery stores selling alcohol near schools will have 30 days to take booze off the shelves under a Prime Minister’s Office order aimed at curbing juvenile drinking.
The ban, which has met wide support among anti-alcohol campaigners, applies to alcoholic drink sales within 300 metres of educational institutions, especially vocational schools and universities. Authorities believe it can help build environments where students will be deterred from drinking.
The ban will be announced within two days, said Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Yuthavong, who chaired the meeting of the government’s Alcohol Control Committee yesterday.
However, it will take effect about one month later, to give alcohol retailers time to adjust to the new rule.
Exempt from the ban are alcohol wholesalers in the vicinity of schools, hotels where the customers are not students, shops in entertainment zones in the Patpong area on Silom Road as well as those on Ratchadaphisek and Phetchaburi Roads.
Authorities have been ordered to watch the effects of the ban, and will assess whether it can effectively curb students’ alcohol consumption.
The government will take the feedback into account as it plans its next moves. “We’ve received a number of proposals asking us to keep alcohol sales away from schools by 500 metres, one kilometre and even three kilometres,” Mr Yongyuth said.
Yet alcohol control advocates say the 300-metre distance is a good start as it is the first time in seven years that a government has attempted to curb alcohol sales to teenagers.
“Our campaigns have borne fruit with this government,” said StopDrink Network director Songkran Phakchokdi after years of work with youth advocacy groups.
He said his network admires the government’s “ethical courage” as it opts to help improve the surroundings of young students rather than boost the booze business.
The ban brings further relief to campaigners as one study found the number of liquor shops near universities increased by 12% per year on average while it was apparent that liquor was consumed by many teenagers before they took part in brawls and assaults.
Other campaigners yesterday expressed hope the efforts against alcohol-related problems will not lose momentum in the future.
“We’re worried whether this effort will carry on after the NCPO has gone,’’ said Thiraphat Khahawong, coordinator of the Youth Network of New Face Drinker Prevention.
However, not all sectors of society welcome the ban. Last week, a group representing 3,400 businesses nationwide complained that 125,000 jobs will be lost immediately if the ban on alcohol sales within 300 metres of educational institutes is enacted.
The Justice Ministry is also working to tackle alcohol sales and brawls among teenagers. It has asked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to invoke Section 44 to curb booze sales near schools and deal with dek waen, motorcycle racers, who cause trouble on city streets, said Samarn Futrakaul, chief of the Disease Control Department’s Office of Alcohol Beverages.