BREAKING NEWS:
Nationwide Midnight ban on alcohol now in effect
BANGKOK: -- All stores as well as venues serving drinks across the country have to stop selling alcohol at midnight, instead of 2am, effective as of yesterday, the Excise Department said.
The two daily periods when alcohol for personal consumption can be sold are 11am-2pm and 5pm-midnight, director-general Utid Tamwatin said. These hours do not apply to transactions in wholesale quantities.
The sale of liquor would also be banned starting next year at specified places including mini-marts at 10,000 gas stations nationwide, stores in school campuses and places of religious worship, he said.
The restrictions would go into effect on January 1 and stores in the listed locations would lose their licences when they expire on December 31.
In other health-related developments, an anti-smoking campaigner ridiculed the idea of sticking cigarette displays among health drinks.
The new concept was unveiled by the 7-Eleven convenience store chain on Wednesday.
Thailand Health Promotion Foundation president Dr Hathai Chitanond said mixing cigarette packets with chicken soup concentrate or bird€™s nest beverages could send the wrong message to the public that cigarettes were like any other goods.
He said they were not like normal goods that children should be allowed to see.
Disease Control Department deputy director-general Dr Narong Sahamethaphat said he believed society should judge the chain€™s action, which it has yet to submit to officials for approval.
Narong said he would not comment further until after today€™s meeting of a committee assigned by Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat to look into the question of cigarette displays.
The meeting involves representatives from the police, Council of State, Attorney-General€™s Office, and the Finance, Commerce and Public Health ministries. Representatives of CP Seven Eleven Plc will also be invited, Deputy Public Health Minister Anutin Charnveerakul said.
Anutin said the new display concept would later be the subject of legal interpretation.
The Thailand Health Promotion Foundation president rejected the chain€™s claim that it has no intention to advertise cigarettes, saying its new concept was still against moral principles.
€œPlacing the packets with healthy products tells children that cigarettes are like any other goods and creates doubt in them because adults tell them it€™s a harmful product that causes illness and death,€ Hathai said.
€œWhy would stores put them together with healthy products? Kids will be confused.€
From a legal point of view, the chain€™s concept is still wrong because the law says displaying products for people to see is intended for commercial gain and therefore it is advertising, he said.
Anutin said Pinij€™s policy is for the ministry to €œteach by example€ by making its offices anti-smoking zones and placing cigarette receptacles at the entrances. These measures will later be extended to other ministries and official buildings.
--The Nation 2005-11-18
Cont'ed from here:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51068
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Nationwide Midnight ban on alcohol now in effect
BANGKOK: -- All stores as well as venues serving drinks across the country have to stop selling alcohol at midnight, instead of 2am, effective as of yesterday, the Excise Department said.
The two daily periods when alcohol for personal consumption can be sold are 11am-2pm and 5pm-midnight, director-general Utid Tamwatin said. These hours do not apply to transactions in wholesale quantities.
The sale of liquor would also be banned starting next year at specified places including mini-marts at 10,000 gas stations nationwide, stores in school campuses and places of religious worship, he said.
The restrictions would go into effect on January 1 and stores in the listed locations would lose their licences when they expire on December 31.
In other health-related developments, an anti-smoking campaigner ridiculed the idea of sticking cigarette displays among health drinks.
The new concept was unveiled by the 7-Eleven convenience store chain on Wednesday.
Thailand Health Promotion Foundation president Dr Hathai Chitanond said mixing cigarette packets with chicken soup concentrate or bird€™s nest beverages could send the wrong message to the public that cigarettes were like any other goods.
He said they were not like normal goods that children should be allowed to see.
Disease Control Department deputy director-general Dr Narong Sahamethaphat said he believed society should judge the chain€™s action, which it has yet to submit to officials for approval.
Narong said he would not comment further until after today€™s meeting of a committee assigned by Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat to look into the question of cigarette displays.
The meeting involves representatives from the police, Council of State, Attorney-General€™s Office, and the Finance, Commerce and Public Health ministries. Representatives of CP Seven Eleven Plc will also be invited, Deputy Public Health Minister Anutin Charnveerakul said.
Anutin said the new display concept would later be the subject of legal interpretation.
The Thailand Health Promotion Foundation president rejected the chain€™s claim that it has no intention to advertise cigarettes, saying its new concept was still against moral principles.
€œPlacing the packets with healthy products tells children that cigarettes are like any other goods and creates doubt in them because adults tell them it€™s a harmful product that causes illness and death,€ Hathai said.
€œWhy would stores put them together with healthy products? Kids will be confused.€
From a legal point of view, the chain€™s concept is still wrong because the law says displaying products for people to see is intended for commercial gain and therefore it is advertising, he said.
Anutin said Pinij€™s policy is for the ministry to €œteach by example€ by making its offices anti-smoking zones and placing cigarette receptacles at the entrances. These measures will later be extended to other ministries and official buildings.
--The Nation 2005-11-18
Cont'ed from here:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51068
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