The figures for the upcoming Songkran festival are worrisome. Not only do they show meagre growth of only 3.94 per cent from last year's festival, but a voracious appetite for alcoholic drinks.

Last year, only 5.4 per cent of the spending was earmarked for booze but this year the respondents said they had set aside 14.7 per cent for making whoopie.

Obviously, this must give encouragement to the Public Health Ministry to pursue the enactment of its alcohol control law, posing another headache for whisky- and beer-makers. How can they fight back against the attempt to have the draft law enacted when people are drinking more and more, despite the huge spending on anti-drinking campaigns?

This week, an anti-alcohol network ran a half page article in a Thai newspaper to support the law. The main message was to attack some members in the National Legislative Assembly who had voiced concerns about the new prohibition crusade.

Written by Songkran Phakchokdee, the article also attacked alcohol companies which claimed that the law would push them towards cheaper products to maintain market share, regardless of quality, and that could lead, ironically enough, to a higher consumption rate.

"This is definitely untrue, or else they would be happy to ignore the law's enactment since they could make more profits," Songkran wrote. "They would not have protested against the law, invested hugely on advertising, or hotly contacted [NLA] members."

I can't help saying that this message is illogical. The alcohol companies simply cannot make profits from selling a higher volume of alcohol, if they have to cut prices. In a business sense, we know that it is not good to pursue revenue by higher production, as everybody is going towards value-added products which fetch higher profits. So Thailand is among the countries that are pursuing this course. Naturally, alcohol is like other products, except that it can harm both drinkers and bystanders.

Commenting on the proposed total alcohol ad ban, Songkran wrote: "They know that year-long lectures by teachers are not as effective as a half-minute TV commercial."

Here he's talking only about TV commercials, leaving us to wonder how effective other ads - also banned under the law - can possibly be. The overall effect, I suppose, is to totally block consumers from knowing that alcoholic beverages exist in Thailand if they are not curious enough to enter a bar.

One wonders what the Public Health Ministry's reaction would be if the law is enacted by this government and a future survey shows that more people are spending even more on alcohol products? More control?

achara_d@nationgroup.com