Think before you drink...

The lifting of the prohibition of the sale of alcohol 

The South African Network of People Who Use Drugs (SANPUD) note with alarm the significant size of the crowds that have gathered outside of retail liquor outlets and the celebratory atmosphere accompanying them. On 1st of June 2020, South Africa moved from ‘level 4’ to ‘level 3’ restrictions promulgated by the government in response to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. ​

Principle among the regulatory changes accompanying the shift in levels is the hiatus on the temporary prohibition of the purchasing of alcoholic beverages, which has been in force for the last two months. While the prohibitionist framework that was suddenly put in place with the declaration of a national disaster by the President on the 15th of March 2020 was in itself extremely problematic, the unstructured and seemingly uncontrolled suspension of the prohibition is equally as dangerous. This danger can be both witnessed socially in the vast crowds of people that have gathered at the doors of many liquor outlets, thus enabling the transmission of the SARS-Cov-2 virus, and may well result in several individual cases of over-consumption and alcohol poisoning.

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