“Isn’t the ban on selling alcohol considered age discrimination? From the age of 18, a person is an adult, how can his rights be limited? It is just as well to ban the use of alcohol for pensioners,” asks a question and expresses an opinion of a TV24 viewer.
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“It should be remembered that this is not the only case where something is restricted by age. The law provides for different gradations according to age – what kind of responsibility a person has or the right to do something,” says sworn lawyer Jānis Dzanuškāns in the program “Un lijnija”.
He mentions that criminal liability can arise during the juvenile period from the age of 16 for certain crimes.
“Here, the legislator looks more closely at whether the person in question, having acquired one or another type of right, is morally mature to acquire such rights. This category is most likely related to the opinion of other specialists, not legislators, at which age a person can or cannot assume the relevant responsibility,” Dzanuškāns says.
Do you consider these planned restrictions to be discrimination?
Individual members could propose not to change the currently established age of 18 for the purchase of beer, cider and wine,
thus applying the planned 20-year limit only to stronger alcoholic beverages.
Last week, the Saeima postponed the consideration of the proposals submitted in the second reading for amendments to the Law on the Circulation of Alcoholic Beverages, in which it is currently proposed to determine that all alcoholic beverages should be prohibited from being sold to persons under 20 years of age.
As Andris Bērziņš (ZZS), chairman of the Social and Labor Affairs Commission of the Saeima, explained to LETA agency, certain coalitions and possibly also opposition MPs could move for the third reading, but not to increase the age from 18 to 20, from which to allow the purchase of beer, cider and wine.
Bērziņš himself will not advance such a proposal and points out that such an exception for drinks with a lower alcohol content is not in line with the regulation of cigarette circulation recently adopted by the Saeima, which states that from 2025 all tobacco products will be allowed to be purchased only from the age of 20.
It is also expected that the industry of stronger alcoholic beverages will consider such a division as a distortion of competition, and such a regulation would be challenged in the Constitutional Court if adopted, the head of the commission concluded.
As reported, with the amendments to the Law on the Circulation of Alcoholic Beverages, other changes are also expected to be made, including the introduction of new time limits for the sale of alcohol – that from Monday to Saturday it can be sold from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Tags: Discrimination Latvia lawyer comments planned restrictions
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