WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s authorities is introducing laws that can toughen the ban on alcohol sale to these below 18 years outdated and prohibit the sale of alcohol at filling stations at evening, the well being minister mentioned Thursday.
The laws are in response to rising variety of experiences of highway and different accidents involving folks drunk.
Sale of alcohol to folks below 18 is unlawful in Poland and may result in stiff fines or a month in detention. Distributors are presently approved however not obliged to examine the client’s paperwork for his or her age. The brand new laws will oblige them to try this.
“The sellers should be extra attentive and accountable of their position,” Well being Minister Izabela Leszczyna mentioned on non-public Radio Zet.
The measures may even ban the sale of alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. at filling stations, the place it’s accessible now around the clock, Leszczyna mentioned.
A deputy well being minister resigned this week for failing to ban a spread of colourful, squeezable alcohol-filled pouches that resemble kids’s snacks from grocery store cabinets. The producer has apologized and mentioned the product will likely be discontinued.
The work on the brand new laws was nearly full and will likely be expedited, Leszczyna mentioned.
Poland is a producer of varied sorts of vodka and beer and tax from alcohol gross sales deliver some 13 billion of zlotys ($3.3 billion) into the state coffers. However consultants say that losses incurred by untimely deaths, absenteeism and accidents are a lot larger.
The European Union nation of some 38 million folks has a median annual alcohol consumption of some 9.5 liters (20 pints) per particular person, among the many highest in Europe.
