How to solve problems? Many people think that the best way to do this is through prohibitions. Now, perhaps, a new one will appear – parents who come to the store with children are offered to be banned from buying alcohol. Will this measure lead to widespread sobriety?
Banning the sale of alcohol to those who came to the store with children was proposed by Irina Volynets, the children’s ombudsman in Tatarstan. In her opinion, such “shopping” has a bad effect on the child and his health in the future. The same applies to the sale of cigarettes. The Ministry of Health seeks to reduce the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among young people, and such a law will help in this, the politician believes.
The fight against drunkenness in Russia has been going on for a long time. During the years of the existence of the USSR, several anti-alcohol campaigns were held, the last one was in 1985-1990, under Mikhail Gorbachev. Then they got down to business decisively: they reduced the production of wines, beer and spirits, closed many shops and raised the price of vodka.
Drinking in parks and long-distance trains was severely punished, up to and including dismissal from work. Promotion of a sober lifestyle unfolded in full. Even the lyrics of songs, literary works and films were edited by censors. For example, the verse of the hit “Time Machine”:
Wagon disputes are the last thing
When there’s nothing else to drink.
But the train is coming, the bottle is empty
And wants to talk.
For the film entry, it was changed to the “sober” version:
Wagon disputes are the last thing
And do not cook porridge from them,
But the train is coming, it’s getting dark in the window,
And wants to talk.
Despite the fact that some of the measures taken then seemed strange, more than a third of the participants in a VTsIOM poll conducted in 2005 assessed that anti-alcohol campaign as a whole positively.
The events that followed had an extremely negative impact on the situation. In the “dashing 90s”, buying alcohol became as easy as shelling pears: they were sold in any stall. They sold both dubious “mumbling” and imported drinks, not paying attention to the age of the buyers.
In 1995, a law was passed prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors. But in fact, it wasn’t that hard to buy booze for a few more years.
Even at the beginning of the XNUMXs, enterprising schoolchildren wrote a note in “adult handwriting” supposedly from the pope and presented it to sellers in stalls. It contained a request to “sell my son a beer for his parents.” And up to a point it worked. Now alcohol is sold upon presentation of a passport.
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Whether the new initiative will be useful is a big question. You can buy booze without children. Only adults will bring it home anyway. And they will use it there, in the presence of those same minors, setting them not the best example. In addition, not all parents who purchase alcohol are addicted: no one has yet canceled family feasts on holidays.
The problem of alcohol addiction is so widespread that another ban, apparently, will not solve it. And politicians should think about possible steps in this direction together with psychologists, psychiatrists, narcologists and other specialists in this field.