Word: bans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...country, and one of the Five Precepts of Buddhism forbids intoxication. Yet excessive drinking is deeply rooted in the culture. "Thais are fun-loving people," said a recent editorial in the newspaper Thai Rath. "We all know that a party is not complete without drinks." This perhaps explains the ban's lukewarm reception from British-educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government. The Tourism Minister claimed it would drive away foreign visitors and further damage a vital industry already reeling from global recession and the shutdown of Bangkok's two airports by antigovernment protesters last year...
...making booze more expensive is political suicide. Brown's Thai counterpart Abhisit enjoys greater popularity among his people, but still cannot afford to anger them - not when his country's unemployment rate has (like Britain's) spiked sharply. But Abhisit needn't have worried. With Songkran fast approaching, the ban was scrapped - not because it was unfair to the responsible majority of Thai drinkers but because, like minimum pricing, there was no guarantee it would make any difference. Thais would either stockpile booze or buy it under the counter...
...First, forget about quick-fix, feel-good bans and start enforcing the laws you already have. In Britain, drunk driving causes 16% (rather than half, as in Thailand) of road deaths, thanks to a combination of strong policing, heavy penalties and shocking public-awareness campaigns. A three-day booze ban over Songkran will change nothing. Better policing will...
...gunmen using them to spray hundreds of bullets at their targets in ambushes, the weapons are also linked to the deaths of more than 100 civilians last year, many of whom simply had the misfortune of driving or walking close to a hit. However, in 2004 a U.S. ban on sale of assault weapons was repealed and a 2008 Supreme Court decision reinforced the second amendment, making a future ban even more difficult...
...have not backed off my belief that the assault weapons ban made sense... assault weapons, as we now know here in Mexico, are helping to fuel extraordinary violence," Obama said. "Having said that none of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy." The President said that he would focus his efforts on getting lawmakers to approve a treaty against arms trafficking, which was signed by President Clinton in 1997 but has never been ratified by the Senate. However, American officials concede that the majority of weapons smuggled to Mexico are purchased by U.S. citizens...