The 22 deaths that occurred in two places in coastal Tamil Nadu from a hooch tragedy last week were avoidable. Human greed was clearly the culprit as the mixers of cheap illicit arrack used methanol in the ‘wash’. Whether they did so knowingly is conjecture as even bootleggers should be aware that, to humans, methyl alcohol is a deadly poison that causes blindness and shuts the kidney and other organs down. The cause is, of course, people looking for a ‘kick’ through cheaper liquor than is available aplenty in the state where it flows like water.
Tamil Nadu is not the only state that suffers from compulsive drinkers looking for a quick ‘fix’ from country liquor and not only because they don’t wish to buy more expensive stuff from distillers. Even states that have a prohibition policy in place like Gujarat and Bihar record more deaths from illicit liquor than Tamil Nadu where such deaths have not occurred for nearly a decade and a half now.
There is a problem of policy that sees the sale of Indian made foreign liquor as well as imported spirits being allowed but prohibits country liquor like arrack or the tapping of toddy. A state like Tamil Nadu derives a substantial part of its annual revenue from the sale of liquor over which it has monopoly through TASMAC. It is the ban on arrack and toddy that drives people to look for cheaper and potentially unsafe alternatives, including some medicinal brews.
There is no arguing against the welfare of the people being better served by prohibition though it has proved to be a failed policy as there will always be demand for and supply of liquor. A more uniform policy allowing a controlled manufacture and sale of arrack and tapping of toddy might serve in averting such tragedies as caused by methanol and other harmful substances that bootleggers seem to have no qualms about using in their ‘devil’s brew’.
