Illicit liquor menace

The massive detection of illicit liquor and bootlegging during the festive ban on liquor sales should wake up the authorities for it indicates a rather alarming rise in the number of illicit liquor breweries around the country.

According to a story carried in our inside pages yesterday as much as 1,900 raids had been carried out during the Avurudu season with a large number of suspects arrested.

The illicit liquor and distillery utensils seized amount to a staggering Rs 40 million. Indeed, the Kasippu industry is a cancer that has spread throughout the country. It is also a sure indicator of how the underground liquor trade flourishes, ban or no ban, and a holistic approach is needed to confront this problem if the well meant Mathata Thitha programme is to bear fruit.

From experience it is clear that hard drinkers will acquire their stuff from whatever source to satisfy their addiction and there is little a ban could do stall them from indulging in their vice.

When a liquor addict finds he cannot obtain his regular supply from a normal outlet he makes a beeline to the nearest hooch den and do much more damage to his health than he would if he drank the legally manufactured brew.

In a wise move, the authorities restricted the closure of legitimate outlets to just two days, instead of three or four days as done earlier. This stumped both legal and illegal traders who make a killing by selling liquor illegally on the ‘dry’ days

as there is a tendency among imbibers and bootleggers to stockpile in advance.

In any case, if the aim of the authorities is to enforce abstinence during specific days bans have no effect as seen from the above statistics.

The already thriving moonshine industry goes into over drive during extended bans denying the State of much needed excise revenue while making a severe dent in the national health budget by way of treating the addicts fallen prey to the rot gut.

It takes lakhs of rupees to treat and if possible, to rehabilitate a drug and alcohol addict and the State has to bear this huge cost amidst other economic constraints.

As other news stories show the high incidents of family brawls and homicides during the Avurudu season had been attributed to the overconsumption of alcohol which again shows a tendency to imbibe more during festive periods.

Today large scale liquor addiction is reported in the estates and the hinterlands chiefly due to poverty and all the Government’s efforts to arrest the social decline and programmes of poverty alleviation will be brought to nought if a more concerted effort is not made to tackle the problem of alcoholism. If the bans have not proved effective there is a need to rethink strategy and try to wean the perennial drinker away from illicit liquor.

We recall that Prof. G.L.Peiris when he was a Minister under the PA Government advocated the reduction in prices of soft alcohol which are less injurious to health so that it will be within the grasp of the ordinary drinker.

It was held that with the reduction in the price of normal alcohol more revenue could be collected on the basis of the increase in the numbers who may switch on to the less potent brew.

The Government while carrying out its Mathata Thitha programme with all its intensity should try to think of alternative avenues to wean people away from the more injurious drinks.

As to the banning of alcohol on certain dates these should be rationalised and properly worked out so that the exercise would not be redundant while also leaving our already overtaxed police force to be deployed on more fruitful duties.

More attention should also be paid to the illicit drugs menace which has also pervaded the entire society from schoolchildren onwards. These agents of death have the power to destroy the very fabric of our society in the long run.

The Police Narcotics Bureau must be strengthened to deal with this situation in order to ensure a brighter future for the younger generation.