More time needed to get rid of grog

By YVONNE HAIP
ALCOHOL outlets in Jiwaka want more time to sell off their stock following the imposition of a ban on sales there.
The operators were given five days until last Friday to sell off their stock by the Western Highlands Liquor Licensing Board, which imposed the ban to help curb alcohol-related problems in Jiwaka as it prepares to go to the polls as a separate province.
But Jiwaka’s liquor outlet operators said the five-day notice was not enough and would mean a loss for them.
They have called for the board to be fair and to ban alcohol from being sold in hotels and lodges, instead only from liquor outlets.
Damien Smith, a liquor outlet operator in North Waghi, said he had 200 cartons of beer in stock and the five days was too short to clear them all.
He said operators should have been given at least a month’s notice.
Smith said it was no use imposing a ban on alcohol if hotels and lodges continued to sell because regardless of where alcohol was sold, problems would persist.
He said it was not fair to ban alcohol from being sold by small businesses and to allow big businesses to operate as normal.
He said there was no difference between them as they all sold alcohol.
Smith said alcohol outlet operators were unhappy because the board had “fed” from their hands.
He said the same board members who had often taken money and beer from the operators were now trying to implement the ban in Jiwaka.
Smith claimed the board was biased as outlets operated by provincial executive council members had not been told to stop alcohol sales.
He called for an extension of a month so that all alcohol the operators had bought could be sold out to ensure Jiwaka was alcohol-free during the election period.
He said it was funny that the liquor board imposed a ban in Jiwaka when it could not control the sale of alcohol in its own province.
Smith said the Western Highlands’ executive council had banned alcohol in the province last year but it was still sold everywhere.
He said if it could not control the sale of alcohol in their province, they should not try to impose it in
Jiwaka.