Nacada, the drugs and alcohol abuse authority, has proposed a set of new rules, the net effect of which means supermarkets, restaurants and petrol stations might be banned from selling alcohol.

The recommendations are so sweeping and wide-ranging that online platforms, vending machines and residential premises will be banned as well.

The authority's zeal seems to target legitimate alcohol businesses that are regulated by law as to opening and closing hours, and which premises already display large and prominent signs warning sellers and buyers alike that alcohol and even cigarettes should never be bought and or sold to minors.

The new proposal to the Senate, if approved, could bar bus parks, railway stations and ferry terminals.

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Nacada’s approach ignores the fact that alcohol, as an industry, employs hundreds of thousands directly and indirectly, and the manufacturers and distribution outlets have invested billions in the process of establishing their businesses.

The new proposals, intended to virtually shut down legal businesses, will highly likely achieve an undesired effect because they will surely drive youthful buyers to beat the rules.

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Nacada ideas is the boldest and nearest example of an authority treating citizens like a nanny state, in which government and its agencies treat adults like children.

Drug abuse is a more dangerous menace and Nacada would rather spend its energies fighting cocaine and bhang.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.” —American poet Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874