The alcohol industry is ruthless. Here you have to make general, bold decisions. It's high time – said Krzysztof Brzózka, former director of the State Agency for Solving Alcohol Problems on TVN24, referring to the announced change in regulations on advertising and selling alcohol.
Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna In Monday's “Tak jest” program, she said that the government is “introducing new, stricter regulations on alcohol advertising, the violation of which will result in a fine of up to PLN 750,000.” – For example, these are stores that write about selling two wines for the price of one – she said. The proposed act on upbringing in sobriety is also intended to change the regulations on packaging and age verification when selling alcohol.
Krzysztof Brzózka, former director of the State Agency for Solving Alcohol-related Problems, commented on these announcements on TVN24.
When asked whether he believed that packaging and promotion were the key to solving the challenges and problems with alcohol in Poland, he replied in the affirmative. – I would also add prices, i.e. very low economic availability. The simplest solution is to introduce a minimum price for a standard portion of alcohol, i.e. for the customer, regardless of whether it is a promotion or not, the price of a package of alcohol will be constant, not low at all – he said.
At the same time, he added that “the production of lower alcohol content will certainly be promoted at prices.” – So it will be more profitable to produce beer with 2.5 percent alcohol content than beer with five percent alcohol content – he noted.
Brzózka drew attention to the “huge” number of alcohol sales points. – It's about 80,000, so it's really something extraordinary. At these points the alcohol is generally ready for use. At gas stations, it is in refrigerators and beautifully displayed, he emphasized.
“Here you have to make general, bold decisions”
– The alcohol industry is so ruthless that all recommendations of the World Health Organization have for a long time included ostracism towards alcohol producers, because their actions were usually unethical – said Brzózka.
Former director of the State Agency for Solving Alcohol-related Problems Krzysztof Brzózka on the proposed changes to the regulations TVN24
– When it comes to the idea of closing sales or banning sales at specific hours at gas stations, the ministry will face the same problem as mentioned by the Chamber of Liquid Fuels. Because again, why will there be a ban at stations, and other shops will be able to operate 24 hours a day? This ban must be general, because here you have to make general, bold decisions. It's high time, said the expert.
As he added, “the social pressure that arose after these famous alcotubes is something fantastic.”
When asked about the monkeys, Brzózka replied that “they are Polish specificity, a Polish specialty.” – Since in fact there are only Polish-made monkeys on our market, let's try to eliminate these monkeys, even after consulting with others. European Union countries. And what is important, these monkeys can be priced in such a way that they actually become unprofitable – he added.
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