The Ministry of Interior & Police has ruled that alcohol sales need to stop at midnight in Santo Domingo province establishments, not so in the National District. Santo Domingo province concentrates most of the entertainment centers in Greater Santo Domingo, many operating 24/7.
The business owners in Santo Domingo province say they do most of their business after midnight and protest the ban on alcohol sales. They argue they are just now recovering from the days of quarantine during Covid-19 (2020-2021).
Interior & Police Minister Jesus (Chu) Vasquez has said the order is to save lives and reduce crime in Greater Santo Domingo.
The ban is the trending topic of the day, with the debate being on how much late-night alcohol sales contribute to crime, violence and traffic accidents.
The association of entertainment businesses have taken the ruling to the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), disputing the right of the Ministry of Interior and Police to levy such a measure when the country is not in a state of emergency. The TSA court postponed the hearing for 23 November 2022. The nightclub business owners say this is traditionally the time of the year when the government has removed all restrictions to alcohol sales, contrary to what the Ministry of Interior & Police has done now.
The bar and nightclub business people say the jobs of thousands are at risk. They argue they represent 300 of these businesses in Santo Domingo East that employ 24,000. In Santo Domingo West there are 200 of these businesses that employ 18,650 and Santo Domingo North has 120 night life businesses, employing 14,000. These jobs would be in jeopardy if the cap is set at midnight for alcohol sales.
The final term of the Leonel Fernandez administration had applied similar curfews to reduce crime, yet gradually these caps were removed, to be reinstated during Covid-19, and afterwards removed, allowing 24/7 alcohol sales.
The Ministry of Public Health has presented statistics that show a close relationship between traffic accidents and alcohol consumption. A forum held on 15 November 2022 established that person under the influence of alcohol is 17 times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident. The director of Collective Health for the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Yocastia de Jesus said that traffic accidents are an important public health problem.
Dr. De Jesús called for educating and promoting activities to create awareness in the population regarding the consequence of alcohol use. “The most active population of the country in ages 15 to 35 years is the percentage of deaths from traffic accidents that are involved to the consumption of alcohol and other illegal drugs as recorded by the National Bureau of Statistics according to the report from 2018 to 2021,” she indicated.
Health Authorities warn about the use of alcohol and its incidence in traffic accidents and other health hazards. The Ministry of Public Health organized the forum on occasion of the World Alcohol Free Day the Department of Mental Health, the Traffic Accident Morbidity Reduction Program (PREMAT) in coordination with the Fenix Foundation, the National Health Service (SNS) and the World Health Organization (WHO/PAHO), commemorated this Tuesday the “World Alcohol Free Day” with a symposium where they exposed the problem.
The Ministry of Public Health called attention and awareness to this situation, respecting the established laws and thus preventing more deaths, grief and disability which impact on the economy of families.
The director of the Department of Mental Health, Dr. Alejandro Uribe said that statistically the use of alcohol is the main cause of deaths in the country due to traffic accidents, especially in young people. “Alcohol is an actor that plays a perverse role in most cases and is involved in much of the story, which results in negative outcomes”.
Specialists from the Gastroenterology Service at the Dr. Francisco Moscoso Puello public hospital warn about the effects of acute alcohol intake, including impact on the digestive system, alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and probably cancer. Dr. Maria Argentina German said that excess drinking also produces nervous disorders associated with memory loss.
There are records of young people who have died from acute alcohol intake and others, in the long run, develop a process of chronic alcoholism, where liver damage, nutritional and neurological disorders are established, which also eventually lead to death. Alcohol has other immediate effects at the level of the central nervous system, which initially start with a feeling of euphoria and joy, and later, as a kind of depression.
On the Esta Noche con Mariasela TV program on Tuesday, 15 November 2022, panelists alerted to the traffic accidents and intrafamily violence as consequences of alcohol abuse. At the end of the program, host Mariasela Alvarez wrapped up, nevertheless, with her vote in favor of revoking the ban to preserve jobs.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Ministry of Public Health
Comentandolanoticia
Esta Noche con Mariasela
Esta Noche con Mariasela
17 November 2022