B

anning booze may appear an easy solution to a nation'€™s ills. But years of experience show that such efforts are more effective at boosting votes than '€œprotecting the morality and culture of society'€, as the latest regulation on liquor says.

Last year, then trade minister Rachmat Gobel banned the sale of alcohol in minimarts, while a bill on alcohol prohibition is currently bogged down at the legislature. Meanwhile, reports appear with alarming frequency of more deaths from bootleg liquor, with victims including young tourists and students. Last week 26 people, mostly students, died in Yogyakarta after consuming tainted liquor in separate locations.

The creativity in producing new mixtures of drinks poses a challenge to any regulator or law enforcers. While current regulations focus on branded alcohol, law enforcers have little recourse to prevent the sale of highly diverse substances used to invent the drinks known as oplosan (concoctions).

These include snake fruit, just one of several agricultural products used in fermentation, mosquito repellent, kolesom (ginseng) and liquor labeled as herbal drinks or jamu, as well as energy drinks and diverse over-the-counter drugs.

Areas across the world'€™s largest Muslim-dominated country have diverse traditional and newfound variations and combinations of their local liquor (tuak, arak, etc), which are part of social and cultural life.

Police have also reported difficulties in monitoring small-scale, backyard operations that produce these potions, many of them lethal. Tourists out for a good time in Bali, Lombok and North Sumatra are among those who have died from drinks produced using methanol in previous years.

Families and friends of the victims have attempted public campaigns to raise awareness and prevent more tragic deaths. These include '€œLifesaving Initiatives About Methanol'€ (LIAM), named after Liam Davies of Australia, who died in Lombok in 2013 and '€œChez '€“ Save a Life'€, after Cheznye Emmons of Britain, who died in 2013 in North Sumatra.

Governors and other local leaders have tried to pass bylaws and rules banning or restricting the sale of liquor. But locals and travelers will always seek cheaper alternatives to legally sold liquor in stores '€” as cheap as Rp 15,000 (US$1.1) for a bottle or 300 milliliters in Yogyakarta, a town with a large student population. Sadly, the latest deaths in Yogyakarta are unlikely to be the last.

As with tobacco, banning alcohol would be a futile exercise, and would merely spur the activities of underground distillers. We clearly lack the resources to clamp down on these illegal producers, despite sporadic police raids. Strictly regulating the sale of liquor, say, for those aged 21 and above (though forged IDs are still a widespread problem), would provide a legal means to purchase untainted liquor.

More campaigns are needed on responsible drinking '€” a road accident that killed four on Monday morning in West Jakarta is suspected to have been caused by a drunk driver. But with better regulations, drinkers could be more assured that their favorite bars and mini markets have legal providers of liquor and that they are not playing a game of Russian roulette.