Disease Prevention and Control Centre Director Lam Chong told public broadcaster TDM’s Chinese-language radio phone-in programme Ou Mun Gwong Cheung yesterday that the Health Bureau (SSM) has the authority to notify minors’ parents and their schools if they were found drinking alcohol in restaurants.
Lam made the remarks when responding to the question of how to deal with customers who take their own alcoholic beverages to restaurants and give them to minors.
Lam said that that particular situation is supposed to be the legal responsibility of the customer, and the restaurant has no legal responsibility in this case, but if the restaurant staff discover that minors are drinking alcohol on the premises, they should first advise the minors to stop drinking, and if the minors refuse to heed their advice, the staff should then inform the bureau or the police. If the bureau confirms the case, it will notify the parents and schools of the minors concerned, in order to strengthen alcohol control education, and penalise the person who provided the alcohol, Lam underlined.
Consultant Physician of the Health Bureau’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Office O Heng Kin said that the new law stipulates that all places that provide alcoholic beverages for sale should not provide them to minors, while merchants have the right to ask for a customer’s ID card if they suspect that he or she is underage.
The new Law on the Prevention and Control on Minors’ Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages will take effect on November 5 this year.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long said that according to a survey conducted in 2018, 80 percent of people under the age of 18 had drunk alcoholic beverages, and a considerable proportion of them had drunk alcohol as young as 13, which was more serious than in neighbouring areas. One-third of the interviewees had purchased alcoholic beverages themselves, one-third had drunk them in a restaurant and 20 percent drank at home, Dr Lo noted.
Meanwhile, O underlined that the Tobacco Prevention and Control Office inspected about 225,000 places from January to September this year, and 2,317 cases resulted in penalties – 2,291 cases involved lighting up in non-smoking areas, 18 cases were about the Illegal sale of tobacco products without warning labels and four concerned smuggling e-cigarettes into Macau – an increase of 18.6 percent year on year.
Consultant Physician O Heng Kin of the Health Bureau’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Office (left), Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long (centre), and Disease Prevention and Control Centre Director Lam Chong pose during yesterday’s phone-in programme hosted by public broadcaster TDM’s Chinese-language radio station, Ou Mun Tin Toi. – Photo courtesy of TDM
