One company decided to sale alcohol in sachets that are delusionally akin to those in which children's muses are packed. Politicians, journalists are outraged. Simon Holownia thunders on Instagram: “Shame. Shame. WSTYD”. Donald Tusk writes on X: "Alcohol in tubes will not pass".
The Prime Minister got mad. In a video published on X He said: "Today, I have put the attention of all officials who are tasked with uncovering absolutely effective methods to counter this. It is about the usage of existing government [...] to prepare a regulation, preferably by midnight present [...] The Minister of wellness will prepare for the future a bill that will destruct this kind of threat in a systemic way."
The vodka maker in sachets withdrew from their sale. We are waiting for those regulations that the Prime Minister has announced. But at the same time, all of this fast action shows that outrage on social media is more valuable than the words of addiction experts who have been saying for years that the state's attitude to alcohol needs to be changed.
Is “ape” for children?
Even before the maker withdrew the booze in the sachets, Simon Holovnia wrote of it: “The intent is clear. Is an adult going to buy a “monkey” in a box like a children's musical? Mercy. The mark is the baby. Curious and encouraged that the poison is packed like a medicine.” So the talker of the Sejm knows that alcohol is poison. Will he learn from it?
We live in a country where We abuse alcohol. We eat it a lot. Katarzyna Łukowska of the National Center for Anti-addictives writes in the introduction to David Nutt's book Drink or not drink?that in Poland alcohol is the most widespread psychoactive substance. Its consumers are over 80% of adults in our country.
Watching the outrage of the booze in the sachets, I wonder how fewer people have lived on, for example, "peanuts". Or bottles akin to those where Coke or another sodas are sold. Although the advertisers of celebrity alcohol, the advertising of alcohol in general, or its 24 hr sale late are increasingly subject to criticism, no of these phenomena have experienced specified a fast and spectacular reaction from the authorities.
‘Rzeczpospolita’ She late wrote that according to marketplace Observatory (CMR) data, we drink mainly beer for the first half of this year, whose regular sales are 9.4 million cans and bottles. Strong alcohols in smaller packs – 90, 100 and 200 ml – are purchased up to 1.3 million units all day.
Katarzyna Łukowska, mentioned above, draws attention to the problem of "monkey". He writes that tiny bottles, at a comparatively low price, easy to hide and drink rapidly alone, make their consumers not aware that they have a drinking or addiction problem. He adds that "most frequently alcoholic beverages in tiny packages are purchased by customers aged 18-25".
The words of Simon Holownia “The goal here is the child” are to be quoted. OK, 25 years is not a child, but definitely a young man.
We're pushing the booze.
Over a year ago, in my weekly newsletter, I asked if we were going besides far with alcohol? I mentioned that Maja Staśko wrote on Political Criticismthat “alcohol brands advance the faces of influencers, and these go with their message mainly to young people. Business produces the request to scope for alcohol, by means of advertising it builds affirmative associations. In this way, it ensures its long-standing and sometimes life consumer fidelity."
Not just commercials. The signs “alcohol only for adults” must besides vanish – he argued in conversation for KP Robert RutkowskiA psychotherapist for addiction. “Let’s start with what the Lithuanians did, so let’s retreat from the sale of soft champagne for children. It is shameful to buy products that children are brought up to consume alcohol in the future," he said.
Higher taxes, little availability, no advertising. Is this the future of alcohol in Poland? We were reasoning about another conversation. This time with Anna Puchach-Koziol, Head of the Legal Department of the National Anti-Addicts Centre.
In consequence to that newsletter, 1 of the readers wrote to me: “It’s cool that you compose about it.” We're writing and waiting for more and more people to get outraged.
What do experts say?
This year I led during Campus Poland Future discussion Drink or not drink. I was inspired by Prohibitions introduced in subsequent cities in Poland and David Nutt's book. In Olsztyn, at Campus, I spoke, among others, to Łukasz Łukaszewski, president of the Olsztyn City Council. I asked him why the city decided to limit the sale of alcohol at the shops at night. He replied that the experts advised.
I should have considered it clear – experts recommend, decision makers make changes. And yet I reacted with surprise. I remembered a fragment of Nutt's book, in which he recalls how he was an expert on a peculiar government commission that called Tony Blair. erstwhile Blair became Prime Minister, he announced the fight against drugs. So he set up a committee, and the committee wrote a report. Nutt and his committee colleagues saw a paper ready for publication and realized that the study removed the full alcohol chapter. Why? The government answered their question that it consulted the alcohol industry, and this challenged the conclusions of scientists.
David Nutt's communicative is sad, but in Olsztyn, any experts listened. Subsequent cities have introduced and plan to introduce night bans on the sale of alcohol. We are inactive not saying adequate about the request to destruct “mallets”. Or is it just now a good chance to be outraged at this colorful poison (quoting Holovnia) in small, useful bottles?
If the public wellness argument doesn't work, a fresh 1 will appear – the garbage argument. The ‘Mouses’ are not to be covered by the bail schemeBecause tiny shops said they wouldn't fit so many bottles. possibly this is simply a good chance to say goodbye to them – as shortly as we said goodbye to the booze in the sachets.
