Kids still getting booze easily

Two teenagers walking out from a Chinese medicine shop in Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur, holding a plastic bag with their illegal purchase.

IT TOOK less than five minutes for two teenagers to buy a bottle of Goodman whisky from a liquor shop in Taman United in Jalan Kelang Lama recently.

What’s the big deal you may say. Well, both boys were 14 years old and they were not asked to provide any identification when they purchased the liquor.

According to the boys, the guy at the counter did not even look up from his mobile phone as he took their money.

This is illegal under a new regulation pertaining to control of alcohol under the Food Regulation Act 1985; which came into effect on Dec 1, this year.

 

The new alcohol regulations require retailers including pubs to put up new signage displaying the legal age limit such as this one.

Under the law, it is illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to anyone below 21 years of age. Previously, the legal age limit was 18.

The alcoholic drink the boys purchased was sold in a 170ml bottle and only cost RM9, it was a cheap version that contained 38% alcohol.

The liquor bottle also did not carry the required warning label regarding the health risks of imbibing alcohol.

The two boys showing the bottle that they purchased earlier.

Going by the new regulations there is another offence whereby compounded hard liquor can only be sold in 700ml bottles and with the increase in tax, a drink that used to cost RM5 will now cost RM50.

The objective of the new regulation is to make it more difficult and expensive to buy liquor; but it clearly has failed based on this case involving the two teenagers.

The ruling was introduced by Health Ministry in June 2016. The ministry’s health inspectors gave manufacturers and retailers 18 months to ensure that the required warning labels were displayed on the bottles and they can no longer sell the liquor in small bottles.

Anyone who is caught breaking the rule will face a fine of not more than RM10,000 or jail up to two years.

Drunks sleeping on sidewalks are a common sight in Brickfields.

StarMetro visited several hypermarkets, sundry shops and Chinese medicine shops in Kuala Lumpur and discovered that the majority of shops were not following the basic rule of displaying the health risks and legal age limit to purchase alcohol as required by the law.

The bottles were also not carrying the warning label.

Those who followed the regulation were still displaying the old signage where the legal age limit to purchase alcoholic beverages was 18.

Some outlets, including big hypermarkets, are selling liquor in small bottles.

ed hard liquor can only be sold in 700ml bottles and with the increase in tax, a drink that used to cost RM5 now costs RM50

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam introduced the change in policy in line with an international agreement signed by Malaysia in 2010 at the World Health Assembly.

According to a report in The Star, Dr Subramaniam said the reason for the ruling is to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages in the market.

He also said that the move was to prevent teenagers and students from consuming alcohol as there was a growing concern over the effects of cheap liquor on society.

Housewife Mary Malar, who drops off her two children at a school in Brickfields every morning, is forced to put up with drunken individuals lying around at the entrance of her daughter’s school.

“Every day there is at least one person sleeping on the pedestrian walkway outside the school compound.

This shop is still displaying the old notice even though the age limit for buying alcohol is now 21 years old

“I also see people sleeping on walkways in front of shops and banks in Brickfields all the time and you can spot the liquor bottles next to them,” she said.

Assistant manager V. Krishnaveni, who runs a non-governmental organisation in Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, concurred with Mary. She said she often came across intoxicated individuals sleeping on the bridge behind her workplace.

“It used to be just one or two men, but now there are more than 10 people hanging out at the bridge consuming alcohol,” she said.

A man sitting in the shadows consuming liquor in Jalan Tebing Brickfields

“Often this people would fall asleep on the streets the whole day after consuming cheap alcohol all night,” she added.

Resident George Joseph said he had made many calls and had written letters to the authorities complaining about the matter.

“I get passed around a lot whenever I make these calls. Usually DBKL will tell me that it is a police matter and when I call the police, they tell me to call AADK (National Anti-Drugs Agency) and AADK will tell me that it’s a Welfare Department matter. It never ends and that’s why the problem is getting worse,” George added.