Alcohol abuse is killing Russians at an alarming rate. President Medvedev has proposed sweeping changes, but experts fear the government will be unwilling to take the steps necessary to make this particular reform more effective than its notorious predecessors.
Medvedev targets alcohol
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Prohibition reduced alcohol consumption but produced a black market
The Russian government hopes to ease the grip alcoholism has on the country. President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed sweeping changes to Russia's legislation, regulation, sale and advertisement of alcohol, but experts fear the government will be unwilling to take the steps necessary for effective reform.
At a forum in Sochi earlier this month, Medvedev announced: "Frankly speaking, alcoholism in our country has become a national tragedy...Each person, on average (including children), annually consumes 18 liters of pure alcohol. If you convert this into bottles of vodka, it torments the soul!"
Health and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova promised a government anti-alcohol program before the end of the year. Specific proposals included the banning of beer and light-alcohol advertisement on TV, increasing penalties for the sale of alcohol to minors, limiting the sale of hard liquors to supermarkets not located within the vicinity of schools and sports facilities and extending the same regulatory measures to beer and light-alcohols currently applied only to hard liquors.
The idea of tripling taxes on beer was also raised. A senior official confirmed that the government was considering raising the national drinking age from the current 18 years to 21, but emphasized that enforcement of the laws would remain at the regional level.
Yevgeny Yasin, Director of Moscowґs Higher School of Economics, approved of all the initiatives, but emphasized that, in order to be effective, they would have to be strictly enforced.
He worried the government would not do this, fearing popular unrest. The countryґs last major anti-alcohol campaign, led by former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, failed largely because of the ineffective and corrupt methods enforced through party organs, Yasin said.
VIDEO: Sin taxes set to rise
Comments:
amit chouhan:
yes prez medvedev trying to start new initiative to alcohol and its abuse.
12-06-2009
Jean-Claude Meslin:
I shall repeat what I wrote yesterday, which was not published. Alcoholism like tabagism and drugs are worldwide problems. To reduce their nasty influence we must stop producing those products.
This can succeed only if it is accompanied by an adequate education and radical sanctions for those who do not obey. At the beginning all possible medical help must be provided for free to those who need it. With the worldwide military expenditures (60 trillions ^ in 60 years: 60 followed by 12 zeros)those humans' shames are my crusades. Decision' makers must forget their politic insanities, show the good example and stop having a cash-register instead of a brain.
Sorry Future Generations. Sincerely...
Jean-Claude Meslin
10-24-2009
Jean-Claude Meslin:
A few weeks ago I came back from my twelfth stay in Orenburg. I know this city since 1997. Friends rented for me an apartment in the Stipno
10-24-2009
Bill:
What are people to do if they don't have their alcohol, especially in such horrible economic times? It is that way here in the USA too with booze, and has been for years. The bar is almost the new American church. Thinking on this, the only answer is some sort of other "spirit", such as a religious belief. This is not mysticism, but reality. Perhaps in Russia, the greatest tragedy of Communism was the promotion of atheism and the drinking reflects this.
10-20-2009
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