Man dies, 2 critical after drinking excessive sachet liquor
A middle aged man died in Lilongwe on Thursday while two me were battling for their lives after consuming excessively some sachets of spirits.
The particulars of the deceased were not independently verified.
But hundreds of people thronged at Area 47 near the popular Bwandilo drinking joint when the men collapsed after drinking a lot of the spirits in sachets.
An eye witness narrated to Nyasa Times that he saw the men drinking outside a PTC shop and that a “well-to-do” banker later bought them “lots of sachets”.
A Mr Chilanga said the men opted to mix Malawi Gin sachets with Gold Label.
In 2010 the Malawian Bureau of Standards (MBS) decided to ban the sale of liquor in sachets. The decisions provided that all liquor must be sold in glass bottle and that MBS should define a minimum size of such containers.
The producers were given a six months grace period to phase out the use of plastic containers and to introduce glass bottles.
However, the ban could not be enforced by the government. One of the distilling companies, Abwenzi Group which produces the Rider brand of spirits, had obtained a court injunction which restrains the MBS to enforce the ban of sachets on its company.
Popular sachets liquor have been given very impressing brand names: Boss, Power’s No 1, Rider, Mafia, Champion and Black Punch!
Parliament is also on record to have expressed concern that liquor is a major contributing factor to alcohol abuse in the country, a move which forced Police to launch an operation targeting vendors selling liquor without licences.
