Recently 40 people in the State of Gujarat lost their lives due to the consumption of spurious liquor. The tragedy of the incident is been a highlight as Gujarat is one among the only hand-picked states (Bihar, Gujarat, Tripura, Mizoram, and Nagaland) of the country to abolish alcohol including Lakshadweep.
It has been almost 62 years since the State of Gujarat follows the law on alcohol prohibition. But the death due to hooch has continued to remain without change. The amendments made in the law seem more hypocritical to call it a ‘dry state’. Under group permit business, the state allows business conferences to entertain with liquor. At the same time, tourists in the state are not bound by the law. The SEZ zones in the state too are exempted from the ban. Practically the concept of ‘dry state’ is only on paper.
The one addicted to consumption will find a way out to procure the drink either through smuggling or through obtaining hooch. Exempted prohibition in certain sectors will ease the job for high-profile individuals.
Alcohol addiction is a neurological disease and as the opposite face of the coin, it also is the highest revenue generator for the states. The actual principle of DPSP in the abolition of alcohol is fulfilled when a state and its residents have developed a firm denial of the consumption. Whereas if post six plus decades of ban and smuggling and death due to liquor consumption is still an issue, the ineffectiveness of the law is simply snatching away the state’s revenue.
Ways to make a state addiction-free will be sorted only through the method of ground-level health programmes concerning the same. WHO indicates global strategy in ten areas for national action, leadership, awareness and commitment, health services’ response, community action, drink-driving policies and countermeasures, availability of alcohol, marketing of alcoholic beverages, pricing policies, reducing the negative consequences of drinking and alcohol intoxication, reducing the public health impact of illicit alcohol and informally produced alcohol, monitoring and surveillance will ease the task of implementation of an effective prohibition.
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