Liquor ban draws mixed reaction

The newly introduced late-night sales ban on hard liquor in Riga has been greeted with mixed reactions.

The ban, which runs from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Sunday, began at midnight on June 15. Police hope the ban will help keep Riga's streets calmer and drunk drivers off the roads during the upcoming midsummer festivities.

Bars and night clubs will continue to sell liquor after 10 p.m. Beer will continue to be sold around the clock.

Austris Kalnins, a consultant with the Latvian Trade Association, believes the most visible effect will be an increase in sales of illegal alcohol. Kalnins pointed to former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's ban on alcohol consumption in the 1980s to illustrate his point.

"The ban won't effect the total consumption at all. People will still be drinking as much as they did before the ban. Turnover on alcohol sales, however, may decrease," he said.

The head of prevention at the State Narcology Center, Janis Caunitis, defended the government's move to ban late night sales of strong alcohol, citing Latvia's chronic alcohol consumption rates.

"We see this as a first step," he said. "The main question is that we don't have an alcohol policy in this country."

Dace Komole, a sales clerk at a 24-hour store in Riga's Old Town, said she thinks the new law is good for the country.

"I think we need this law. Young people drink too much and then they just get aggressive," she said.

Others say the ban is too intrusive into people's personal lives.

"People need to relax in the evenings and especially on weekends. I don't like this ban," said Olga Kirilova, a manager at the Merkurs AT food store and games arcade.

Police patrol officer Kaspars Paegle said one benefit of the law is that it will force people to go to clubs and bars rather hang around on the streets drinking.

"I have seen this system in Ventspils already and it is working fine," he said. "The only difference, though, is that in Riga it will still be possible to buy beer 24 hours a day."

Adult Latvians consume around 12 liters of pure alcohol annually, compared to 7.1 liters per capita in Finland or 4.3 liters in Norway, with rates of alcoholic psychosis and alcohol-related deaths similarly high, he said.

State police spokesman Krists Leiskalns said the new ban may decrease the number of drunk drivers, which would lighten the police work load. But he also said an increase in bootleg alcohol is a real concern.

The Latvian midsummer festivities lure many drunk drivers to Riga's roads.

During the midsummer celebrations in 2000 police arrested 344 drunk drivers. The number climbed to 554 last year.

Police arrest an average of 40 to 50 drunken drivers daily in Latvia and there are roughly seven road accidents per day related to alcohol, Leiskalns said.