Dear Editor,
I read letter written by Mr Vidyaratha Kissoon ‘We should collectively say ‘no’ to liquor’ (SN, July 25) and wholeheartedly agree with his central theme; I believe all decent and logical thinking Guyanese will do so too. However, the mere writing of letters, as Mr Kissoon is well aware, will not do too much to bring about a desirable change in the attitude of people towards alcohol. I humbly suggest the following strategies and policies which may help.
1. Increase the tax on alcoholic beverages progressively – a strategy which is pursued in developed countries.
2. Have warning labels put on all alcoholic beverages similar to what the tobacco industry is forced to do.
3. Put legislation in place, if this has not already been done to restrict the licensing of new beer gardens and similar places where people sell alcohol.
4. Limit the length of time that places that sell alcohol can open for business. For example, I suggest they be forced to close on Sundays until say, 3 pm. In addition, none of these places should be allowed to open before 11am and must close by 1 am.
5. If laws are already not in place, introduce legislation with severe penalties for anyone caught making or selling bush rum.
6. Enforce the laws regarding the sale of alcoholic products to children. Anyone purchasing these products must produce identification to show they are over 18 (or better yet, 21) and introduce stiff penalties for sellers found breaching this regulation.
7. Give incentives for companies making alcoholic products to diversify into other types of products that can be beneficial to them and the country as a whole.
8. The Ministry of Health, the churches, and other interested agencies must embark on a sustained sensitisation programme explaining the deleterious effects of alcohol, starting with the schools with programmes on television and billboards, etc, etc.
9. Ban all advertisements that promote alcohol sales. I know this will hurt a lot of persons and businesses but the situation is so critical that desperate situations call for desperate measures. It would be interesting if statistics can be obtained to find out how many Guyanese are alcoholics.
Many other suggestions can be made but in the interest of brevity I close.
Yours faithfully,
C Persaud
