B

ylaws banning and controlling liquor sales in shopping centers, hotels, restaurants and nightspots would not curb alcohol-related deaths because drinking was common practice, an activist said.

Rudhy Wedhasmara of the East Java Action (EJA) Drug Victim Network, a nonprofit organization that provides counseling for drug addicts in East Java, said the regulation that controls the distribution and sale of hard liquor in Surabaya was ineffective because drinking had become common practice among many communities in the country.

'€œNot everyone drinks liquor to get drunk, but some drink to show they are tough by intentionally mixing traditional liquor with substances easily found in the market, such as carbonated drinks, which they mix to make deadly brew, or methanol,'€ Rudhy told The Jakarta Post.

Rudhy said that with the presence of a local bylaw, social drinkers could be criminalized as the government would not be able to control the distribution of adulterated liquor.

Meanwhile, sociologist from Sura-baya'€™s Airlangga University, Bagong Suyanto, said the anti-liquor bylaw would also not curb the number of victims of methanol poisoning.

'€œDrinking mixed liquor is part of a subculture among people of the lower-income bracket who think that drinking demonstrates masculinity,'€ said Bagong.

The National Anti-Liquor Movement recorded that 18,000 people died every year in Indonesia due to methanol poisoning. Based on a World Health Organization report on alcohol and health in 2011, as many as 320,000 people between the ages of 15 and 29 were killed across the world from methanol-related deaths.

Surabaya municipal council Alcoholic Drinks Control Draft Bylaw special committee head Blegur Prijanggono said that despite the controversy, his committee would keep the bylaw intact to protect children from the hazards of liquor.

'€œAccording to the bylaw, the Surabaya municipality will designated a special place to sell alcohol, while sales of various kinds of hard liquor will be banned in supermarkets and minimarkets,'€ said Blegur.

Spokesman for Lifesaving Initiatives Against Methanol (LIAM) Charitable Fund Australia in Indonesia, a nonprofit social organization providing education on the threats of adulterated liquor in Indonesia, Aji Sulaiman, said Indonesia had 147 bylaws banning and limiting liquor sales.

'€œIn Cirebon, West Java, despite the enforcement of city bylaw No. 4/2013, which prohibits alcohol of any type from being sold anywhere in the city, in early February this year, five people died were killed after consuming adulterated liquor in Harjamukti district, Cirebon city,'€ said Aji.

Surabaya Alcoholic Drink Traders Association spokesman Rendhy Hatmo Nugroho said entrepreneurs and residents had yet to get involved in the discussion of the draft bylaw, saying that the bylaw did not cover methanol-related deaths.