An official about the ban on the cheap alcohol: Let's ban "Coca Cola" then
- 2.08.2012, 15:23
Belarus continues unequal battle with green serpent.
Police and doctors suggest new initiatives, merchants, heavily sighing, implement them.
Is there any effect from the restrictive measures? From the beginning of summer in the Partisan district of Minsk continues an experiment on a temporary ban of the sale of fruit wines. Onliner.by asked the First Deputy Chief of the administration Piotr Shpakousky about the first results and future alcoholic plans.
- There are nuances. Partisan district is one of the nine districts of Minsk. And the city is a single unit. If we have a permanent ban on the sale of wine, there may be legal issues - he said. - The Ministry of Justice has asked our solutions, it will give a legal assessment. The results? According to police, the situation has improved slightly. But we live in the city. For example, if the workers of the tractor factory see that nothing is being sold near the factory, they can just went home to Seryabryanka or to the Frunze district, there they will buy what they need. It's very uneasy.
- It might be worth considering a ban for the whole city?
- The mayor said: when the experiment is over, we’ll see, if it is appropriate to make such decisions at the city level. The question is not easy: what should the producers do? There are our people at their factories. If we will ban the sale of alcohol, then the companies should be closed. And one must feel this situation: remember how one struggled with alcoholism in Gorbachev's time? And then they started to drink something else, different liquids. This should not be allowed.
The Deputy Head of the Administration asks himself the question: if the fruit wines are indeed so harmful, then why do we allow producing them?
- It is possible to ban our Belarusian vodka too, saying that only the imported on is good. It should be, perhaps, some conclusion of the Ministry of Health, pursuant to which it is possible to impose a ban. And it looks like a debate that "Coca-Cola" or "Pepsi-Cola" is poison. But people around the world drink it, no one prohibits it to them.
- Does trade in the district suffer losses?
- Some owners of retail facilities say that their commodity turnover has been seriously reduced. And there are employees in their shops, who want to receive a decent salary too. Therefore, the financial position of commercial properties should be considered in the light of such decisions.
Piotr Shpakousky shared his human, not bureaucratic vision of the problem.
- In Stockholm, I’ve read in a newspaper, there is a drinking establishment for 3000 seats. It has houseman, tourists come in to have a drink. And how many such places do we have? Where a team of milling-machine operators can go after work? It’s expensive everywhere. It all has to appear here, in order to talk about a culture of drinking.