Kyrghyzstan goes dry at popular demand

Residents of Tash-Tabo town in the former Soviet republic of Kirghizia, or Kyrghyzstan, located in Central Asia have prohibited import and sale of alcoholic beverages on the town’s territory. The prohibition has been introduced there at the initiative of local elders who consider drunkenness immoral and dangerous, as this vice increasingly takes root in the republic’s most Alpine and poorest district. Local youth is especially alcoholism-prone - largely because of unemployment. The Tash-Tabo initiative has been taken up by the neighbouring areas. Earlier, another popular initiative, the elders’ jury, was legalized in Kyrghuzstan by President Oskar Akayev’s decree.

YURI RAZGULYAYEV PRAVDA.RU BISHKEK