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Bar owners and Boozing

Apr 29, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyanese bar licensed holders have a heavy duty, a tough job.  It has to do with boozing customers, and when enough is enough.  Or, to present this more directly: when it is time to stop someone from having another one for the road.  The road is where the trouble lies, in that other citizens soberly going about their business can be fatally or seriously injured.  Drinking above the legal limit and driving can be a lethal combination, and this is what places licensed holders in a rough spot.

The more they sell, the more quickly they clear their overhead, the more money they make.  Also, some of their customers may be their friends, as well as longstanding drinking partners.  There is both challenge and hardship to hold either to the line, meaning, no more drinks at this liquor establishment.  Regardless, licensed holders have an obligation first to be sober themselves, and to act in a sensible manner, and from which only the constructive usually results.

Amendments impacting Guyana’s Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act and the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing (Amendment) Act went into effect in 2022.  Existing obligations, as they applied to licensed holders, were expanded.  The obligations that are vested in a licensed holder also apply to “any servant” of such holder, which normally means a bartender, waiter/waitress, and other such employees.

The law requires the licensed holder to post signs in prominent places to discourage drinking and driving.  It is not for show only, but must be followed in both letter and spirit.  Clearly, there are times, when a patron has imbibed too much, with signals present.  These could range from slurred speech to unsteady gait to aggressive and other unacceptable forms of behaviour.  There are times when it is apparent that a drinker is an obvious danger to himself and others, which must be combatted.

We live unhappily with numerous consequences of drunk driving that ended up in both on and off the road horrors.  On the roads, there have been dead or broken bodies, and wrecked vehicles, while away from the roads, there are our hospitals and workplaces dealing with the fallouts.  But the worst traumas of all that attend drinking and driving are felt by families left to cope with new circumstances.

Licensed holders have their role to play, and it is a serious one.  Though difficult, the standard has to be, not another drink, not here, and definitely not at this time.  Moreover, licensed holders have to be on the alert for those ‘partners-in-crime’ who seek to circumvent restrictions placed on intoxicated patrons especially drivers by stepping forward to buy more drinks for them.  Designated drivers also must come under the gimlet gaze of licensed holders, so that they are held to the same rigid standard, if only to protect the drinkers themselves, and the wider public.  A growing element to the dangerous drinking culture in Guyana is underaged drinking.  In every instance that we have identified licensed holders (and their workers/servants) must be vigilant and act with the greatest prudence, with the police appropriately informed.

It is better to be safe than sorry, and as much as drinking like a man has long been the culture of Guyana; too much of it has been destructive.  The long trail of deaths and injuries on local roads furnishes its own confirmation.  In the final analysis, drinking to excess, beyond the legal limit, and driving have too often proved to be the worse cocktail ever, a totally lethal one.  The experts advise that two drinks well-spaced out are borderline relative to sobriety and safety, but few are the local drinkers satisfied with two of anything, be they beers or hard liquor.

Undoubtedly, licensed holders and servants have significant challenges before them.  Some can drink like a fish and show no outward signs, are steady as a stone on their feet, and showing no change in speech.  Then again, some drinkers may have started their festivities at another establishment, which makes a demanding job more demanding.  Notwithstanding all these aspects, bar licensed holders have their obligations under the law and from those they must not shrink.  It makes for a safer, healthier local road system.

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