Buying alcohol under 21 will become illegal in Belarus

The authorities also want to ban alcohol sales between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m.

For what BelaPAN learnt, such a regulation is included in the draft law on the changes in the regulations on alcohol sales in the domestic market.

“In the territory of the Republic of Belarus it is forbidden to sell alcoholic drinks to persons under 21 years old. In case of doubts, the shop assistants have the right to demand an ID of a customer”, - says the draft law in government’s consideration.

It is suggested that the regulation comes into force from 2015 onwards.

The justification documents accompanying the draft law say that the novelty is initiated by the Ministry of Interior.

“According to the Health Care Ministry, the possibility of the youngsters over 18 to buy alcoholic drinks leads to the numbers of alcoholic dependent people aged 18-21 by 25 times as compared to the same number of such people under 18”, - the draft law’s authors state.

The justification also points out that “already now out of the total number of adults, who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol, 10.3% accounts for citizens between 18 and 20 years old”.

The prepared draft law also foresees the introduction of the “time restriction for alcohol sales between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. with the exception of retail sales at public catering institutions and duty free shops”.

It should be pointed out that this year Belarus is the world’s largest pure alcohol consumer per capita. The World Health Organization’s annual report “On the situation in the area of alcohol and health” says that the level of pure alcohol consumption per resident of Belarus over 15 years old averages to 17.5 liters a year. Belarusian men drink 27.5 liters of pure alcohol a year, women – 9.1 liters.