News Forum - Thai government should reconsider 2pm to 5pm alcohol ban

[Thaiger]

Secretary-general of the Kla Party, Atavit Suwannapakdee, believes the government should lift the restriction on selling alcohol from 2pm to 5pm to help the tourism industry recover, adding there are no rules restricting the hours of alcohol sales in any other Southeast Asian country. “Thailand used to attract 40 million tourists a year, generating 3 trillion baht in revenue, but there has been a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol from 2pm to 5pm since 1972 for the outdated reason that drunk civil servants will not work productively. “The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which restricts the hours during which alcoholic […]

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[Venusianhart]

Shinybums got trashed. Everyone else paid the price.

Those gongs they wear these days down at the water board and land office etc.  are they for showing up sober, or winning the yard of Ale contest on Friday nights?

[Highlandman]

Finally. Dump the 2-5pm alcohol sales ban (even if only in tourist areas/hotels etc.) and the economy can boom once again.

[TWS60]

Might as well lift it as the police aren't enforcing it uniformly, rather use it as a disingenuous, catch-all enforcement mechanism to shut bars down as a reaction to alcohol related incidents, which have nothing to do with COVID.  

Case in point in another Thaiger re-post article today re: the fella who got into an argument in/around Walking St. bars, and wound up bleeding all over the sidewalk and himself after getting cut with a knife/sharp object during an altercation.  1am, after bars should have been closed but weren't.   As a result of the incident, police went around shutting bars down, citing the midnight COVID/pandemic reg as the convenient authority.  

So just own it and quit hiding behind a disingenuous enforcement mechanism that's clearly out-lived its intended purpose, and reality. 

This is Article 44 Thailand, not some western utopia of democracy and free speech.   So nut up, draft the ideal, sweeping authority giving the Pattaya police chief unilateral authority to take the temperature of the bar zone environment, and when things start kicking off in Pattaya, which is as sure as rain during rain season,  then shutter one, some, or all the bars for the night.  Full Stop. 

Sure, it's capital punishment for all based on the sins of a couple dumba**ses, but that how laws and regulations come into being - the antics of temporary ding dongs, bozos from the low end of the gene pool, or others prone to intentional, evil intent.   Welcome to the human race. 

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

But … if you read into it, ….. 

Nevertheless, the change, according to the minister, will initially be limited to hotels that cater to tourists. Restaurants and tourist attractions may also sell alcohol during the extended period, at the provincial governor’s discretion, the minister said. 
https://thephuketexpress.com/2022/06/17/alcohol-sales-ban-in-thailand-between-2-pm-5-pm-to-be-lifted-nationwide-on-july-1st-but-only-in-hotels-says-tourism-minister/
 

From this “at the provincial Governor’s discretion” …. there may be a rush on the sale of large brown envelopes, as we all know that most bars are also registered as restaurants now.

 

[Benroon]

5 minutes ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But … if you read into it, ….. 

Nevertheless, the change, according to the minister, will initially be limited to hotels that cater to tourists. Restaurants and tourist attractions may also sell alcohol during the extended period, at the provincial governor’s discretion, the minister said. 
https://thephuketexpress.com/2022/06/17/alcohol-sales-ban-in-thailand-between-2-pm-5-pm-to-be-lifted-nationwide-on-july-1st-but-only-in-hotels-says-tourism-minister/
 

From this “at the provincial Governor’s discretion” …. there may be a rush on the sale of large brown envelopes, as we all know that most bars are also registered as restaurants now.

eh? But this restriction only applies to retail outlets such as supermarkets etc, it's never applied to bars has it ? Maybe it has but I've certainly never been refused a beer in a bar during those times in the last 20 years odd

But yes do away with this archaic really annoying anomaly.

[Giltee]

It’s quite simple I’d have thought. If civil servants were drinking during work hours then sack them. You can smell alcohol on peoples breath. A stupid law because the government of the time was soft on enforcing good work culture. I love Thailand and Thai people but sometimes I wonder….

[Slimantilope]

The detachment from real understanding by the conveyer belt of barely competent "ministers" is quite staggering, in Malaysia where alcohol is non Halal it can be bought 24 hours a day 365 days a year for those that choose. In Thailand needless control is damaging ordinary Thais ability to make a living in very difficult times. The ruling classes don't really care, their lives are on another level, children educated overseas, owning property overseas etc. etc. Don't expect anything to change in the foreseeable future, why should it.