National Assembly Representative: "Drinking too much weak wine will also make you drunk..."

"Weak wine, drinking too much will also make you drunk..."

Discussing the draft law, on the morning of January 16, delegate Tran Quang Chieu - Standing Member of the Finance and Budget Committee said that alcohol and beer are two different products and cannot be sanctioned equally. As for the regulation prohibiting the sale of alcohol and beer on the internet, Mr. Chieu said that it can only be applied to alcohol, but beer cannot be banned.

Referring to the name of the bill, a delegate from Nam Dinh province argued that if the law is named "Prevention of harmful effects of alcohol and beer", it would be no different than affirming that these are harmful drinks.

"If so, what do we think when on holidays and Tet we offer our ancestors, when we worship our deceased relatives, in addition to a bowl of rice, there is also a cup of wine? What do we think when international guests come to visit, and Party and State leaders hold a glass of wine to welcome guests?", delegate Chieu asked.

Also disagreeing with the name of the draft, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Quang Nam Province Phan Thai Binh proposed changing the name to the Law on Control of "Alcoholic Beverage Abuse", targeting people under 18 years old.

Mr. Binh noted that the demand for alcoholic beverages in general should not be reduced, because it would affect responsible drinkers and legitimate businesses.

Delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi Delegation) supports the early adoption of this law because the harmful effects of alcohol and beer are increasingly widespread and serious. “As a doctor who hardly drinks alcohol, I understand and share this deeply,” said Delegate Tri, suggesting that the bill, in addition to preventing and combating harmful effects, should also provide guidance and create conditions for alcohol to exist in a better, more civilized life.

This delegate said that the bill is not as strict as the regulation prohibiting forcing people under 18 to drink alcohol: “I propose prohibiting forcing and inciting others to drink alcohol. Everyone does it, regardless of age. I have sat in meetings where they incited each other to drink alcohol.”

According to him, wine and beer are goods that also need advertising, but with limited content, location, time and type, and no need to limit alcohol content. Because "weak wine can make you drunk if you drink too much. A wise person can talk too much, no matter how good, but it is boring".

"Must be weighed"

Explaining some issues of concern to delegates, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien emphasized that the delegates' contributions were all valid from different perspectives and that the Drafting Committee would study and absorb them in the spirit of issuing policies that "issues that are beneficial to the people will be done at the highest level, and those that are not beneficial to the people will not be done".

Emphasizing that this is a difficult law, the Minister of Health said there are "confrontations" between the desire for the law to protect human health to the maximum and the desire of manufacturers and businesses to generate revenue and profit. This law was born from a more health-oriented perspective and must be feasible.

International experience shows that the solution to limit the harmful effects of alcohol and beer is to reduce the availability of these drinks, increase excise tax and control advertising.

The female minister also emphasized that currently we must balance economic benefits with benefits for social security and human health.

Faced with many different opinions on the name of the draft law, the Minister of Health proposed to keep the name according to option number 1. Because this is both a viewpoint, easy to understand, simple and only prevents and combats the harmful effects of alcohol and beer in the process of production, business, consumption and drinking, and does not affect the culture of alcohol and beer.

“It does not mean that when this law is issued, all alcohol and beer will be banned. There is not a single word in this law that prohibits drinking alcohol or beer,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien once again emphasized and said that the Drafting Committee will absorb and edit it to continue submitting to the National Assembly.