My guess is a lot of people with no work to go to and a bunch of relief money in hand will party until they are broke. In my home town every month the welfare cheques are paid. For about a week after cheque day the number of drug overdoses skyrockets. DUIs and drunken bar brawls and asaults are high. After the party is over the welfare people line up at food bank until the next cheque arrived.
But for all that, the town officials do not have the wisdom to ban alcohol for the entire town, rich, middle class and poor. How can this be? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
liquor bans around elections are the rule here, and I think there's a few other countries in the (developing) world that have them. The motive appears to be the same as with the current liquor ban - they're afraid of people doing irrational things under the influence. And I think they're probably right with that. "responsible" drinking aka knowing when to stop before you do anything stupid isn't a very common skill here. Its just collateral damage that responsibly drinking expats like ourselves are suffering from that now nice move about the lotto - I wonder why i didnt see any of those yellow boxes burnt to the ground as a result. That lottery business is a thing that surely should stay banned, forever...
Elections are one thing. But this extended ban appears headed in the direction of a new normal. Authorities may prefer the present, less raucous situation amongst the abusers and continue it forever, for all we can see. The US did that once but the public was able to vote it out. This ban has no expiration date. It will not be voted on (especially by expats). Lotto (I didn’t know about this ban) is another non-covid ban of things that make us evil. We may find ourselves in a teetotalin’, non-gambling society which I think totally changes its character. None of that affects me personally per se, like most of us, I’m not that much of a drinker, never a gambler myself, still it seems a shame. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes - the 'new normal' will include measures governments wanted to introduce but never had the excuse to do so. I have read for a few years now about the desire to control money by making societies cashless - in this way it is easier to tax and to steal some from your citizens if your feckless policies lead to economic failure. Now it looks like they have their excuse.
Even with the harshest of methods they didn't manage to make a real dent in illegal drug consumption in the past, so I don't think anybody in their right mind will attempt to outlaw alcohol, criminalizing even larger parts of the population. It'll not only hurt the local alcohol producing industry (although they could attempt to ramp up production of exportgrade stuff this won't be too easy short term) but also tourism. There's not too big a market for alcohol free vacations I think. Add to that the loss of tax income and I don't see how they could possibly do that. Unless they prepare for a muslim takeover
