TALLINN – The government on Thursday backed in principal an amendment to the penal code that would enact criminal punishment for sale of alcohol to minors.
The bill, sponsored by the opposition Pro Patria Union, was submitted on May 11 and proposes to implement fines of up to three years in jail for repeat offenders.
The government, however, suggested shortening the maximum jail term to one year.
The bill's sponsors argue that criminalizing the sale of alcohol to minors would allow law enforcement officials to use more efficient surveillance methods and hand out tougher punishments for such a crime.
According to the current penal code, inducing minors to drink is a crime, but selling to minors isn't, Justice Minister Ken-Marti Vaher explained to reporters.
"The amendment has above all a preventive effect. If shop assistants know that sale of alcohol to minors carries criminal liability they won't do it as lightly as now," Vaher said.
In his words, shop owners may allow, even compel, sales personnel to sell booze to minors in order to boost sales, especially now that sale a violation is only a misdemeanor carrying a fine. Faced with criminal punishment, show owners and clerks would not sell to minors.
Parliament's legal committee said that the first breach on sale of alcohol to minors should be treated as a misdemeanor and punished with a fine.
