• 
• 
• 

Thanabodi, a sophomore at the university's Faculty of Economics, said the other day that the group, which currently has some 10 members, is inviting university students nationwide to join up and help drive as well as expand this movement.

His mission is quite simple: use the theories learned in the classroom to solve social problems affecting the future of Thai youth.

For instance, Thanabodi and his colleagues joined the "Alcohol, No Ordinary Community: Its Tax Implications for Thailand" seminar held on August 25 by the Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Economics.

The event drew a few useful conclusions for the formulation of public policy, including one that is shared by Thanabodi and his friends - that the current excise-tax structure is far too distorted and allows high consumption of alcoholic beverages, thereby damaging health.

According to Thanabodi, more Thais, especially the youth, will turn to beverages that have higher alcohol content every time the government raises its alcohol tax.

This is because a higher tax will boost the price of existing beer brands, for instance, and then there will be a trade-down effect, prompting consumers to switch to cheaper brands that have a higher alcohol content.

This is why the government needs to reform the system so the taxes are proportionate to alcohol content.

Unless this issue is quickly addressed, the situation will only get worse once Thailand opens its economy further next year as part of its commitment under the Asean Free Trade Agreement with partner countries such as China.

Beer from China that costs as little as Bt4 a bottle is expected to flood the Thai market, leading to a further trade-down of beer consumption and worsening public health.

Thanabodi said excessive drinking is already a serious problem among some of his fellow students. According to him, an estimated 20 to 30 per cent of the 1,000 students in his faculty are already relatively heavy drinkers.

These "heavy drinkers" consume alcohol almost every night and often end up missing classes, so the average grades earned by this group are generally dismal.

This is obviously a negative consequence of the distorted tax system that makes beer, whisky and other types of alcoholic drinks unreasonably "cheap".

In a bid to boost awareness about this issue, Thanabodi and colleagues have also made video clips of the seminar available on YouTube and Facebook to tap their targeted audiences. All you need to do is type in the key words to instantly access the clips online.

Apart from alcohol, the association next plans to tackle the problems of smoking and cigarette tax, before taking on problems caused by excessive online gaming among youth, which can be fatal as exemplified by the recent death of a teenage gaming addict.

They are also planning to put on their agenda the social implications of gambling, particularly betting on English Premier League matches which is widespread nationwide..

All these issues are topical and crucial to the future of Thai youth, so the association's efforts should be lauded.