Actions speak louder than words!
(Baonghean) - The draft Law on Prevention and Control of Harmful Effects of Alcohol is currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Health before being submitted to the National Assembly.
When it comes to combating the harmful effects of alcohol, the public is very supportive. However, if the issue is discussed in detail, many people still have concerns about the feasibility of this draft law.
For example, the draft law stipulates the following points:
- The sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited from 10 PM to 6 AM daily.
- Vendors selling alcoholic beverages are only permitted to sell to customers for on-site consumption (in units of alcohol/hour), specifically 1 can of beer, or 1 glass of 100 ml wine (13.5%), or 1 shot of 30 ml spirits (40%-43%) for male customers. For female customers, the quantity is half of that.
- Alcoholic beverages are not sold to pregnant women or individuals under 18 years of age...
Clearly, just by reading through the aforementioned prohibitions, many people believe that the measures to curb alcohol abuse outlined in this draft law are highly impractical.
Indeed, to prohibit restaurants and bars from selling alcohol from 10 PM to 6 AM daily, authorities would need to establish a sufficiently strong personnel system to patrol, monitor, control, prevent, and penalize violations from 10 PM to 6 AM, meaning this patrol and enforcement team would have to operate around the clock. How many cities, villages, and towns are there in our country? How many tens of thousands, even millions, of restaurants and bars sell alcohol at night? How can we possibly control them all? Even if authorities had sufficient personnel to monitor all restaurants, the law still wouldn't be able to cover everything! Why? The law prohibits the sale of alcohol from 10 PM, but what if someone buys alcohol at 2:59 AM and then drinks it? Can they be penalized?
The law stipulates that only one can of beer can can be sold per customer per hour. So, if a customer buys 10 cans of beer from 10 different shops within that hour, and then drinks it at one of those shops, what happens? Can they be fined? If the rule is only one can of beer per hour, what if they ask relatives or friends to buy another 10 cans? Can they be fined? The law prohibits selling alcohol to pregnant women. How can a salesperson know if a woman is pregnant? Who has the right to examine her pregnancy? Usually, a woman under three months pregnant is not easily detectable from the outside! Sometimes, there are women with very large bellies who aren't pregnant. Should they be sold alcohol? If they aren't sold, it could lead to loud arguments and disorderly conduct! Enforcing these legal provisions is indeed very complicated! Because the draft law on preventing alcohol abuse still contains some illogical, unscientific, and unrealistic points, making it difficult to implement, many people believe that the Ministry of Health needs to conduct further research on the feasibility of the law before submitting it to the National Assembly for consideration.
Everyone knows that alcohol abuse causes significant harm to life, affecting individuals, families, and society. Many countries around the world have laws prohibiting or preventing the harmful effects of alcoholic beverages. In our country, the harmful effects of alcohol on social life are very clear, especially in the areas of traffic and public order. Proposing a law on preventing the harmful effects of alcohol is essential. The time has come for a law to strictly punish and rectify the moral and ethical issues in this area. The people welcome and support the enactment of such a law, and they also hope that all laws are feasible – "words that are to be done," not just "words that are not to be said."
Thach Quy