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“Bootleg” vodka made of cosmetic spirit

December 08th, 2013

Officially, the residents of Lithuania consume much less strong alcohol than during the pre-crisis years. However, according to the producers of alcohol, this does not mean that the Lithuanians make do without strong beverages. As a higher excise tax is applied and people’s actual income decreases, the sellers of alcohol surrogates, which often endanger not only one’s health but also life, flourish.

Trade flourishes in market places

The research performed by ABBI cluster, which unites the Baltic beverage industry, together with partners revealed a shocking fact: illegal beverages constitute over one third (36 percent) of the amount of alcohol consumed by the residents of the country. The more a person is prone to drinking, the more one tolerates moonshine.

“The best way to fight that is to educate the society. However, it is a long and hard work; therefore, it is not too relevant for the politicians who plan from one cadence to another. Increasing excise tax and calculating that people buy less alcohol in the shops and thus supposedly drink less of it is simpler. Unfortunately, the actual situation is quite different. Criminals flourish when legal business is restrained by taxes,” Romas Apulskis, the President of ABBI cluster, emphasized.

Statistics shows that illegal alcohol is the most popular in Telšiai, Tauragė and Marijampolė counties. Interestingly, the amount of bootleg cigarettes smoked is the highest in these regions as well. Of course, there is no shortage of the sellers of illegal products in other cities and towns of the country. This is revealed by the social initiative “BeSeselio.lt” (“No shadow”) in which public-spirited residents can mark the points of sale of illegal alcohol, cigarettes or other intoxicating substances. It is obvious when viewing the map that the biggest “black holes” are located in the market places of the cities.

“To think logically, there would be no sellers of illegal alcohol or cigarettes in the market places if the managers of the marketplaces did not tolerate them. They do not sell them in “Akropolis” after all. However, it is often the case in the market places that a man puts out paintings for sale but the real goods are stacked behind the paintings. Everyone knows about that; the criminal system is entrenched deeply. The actions of police officers are restricted. They cannot apply the operative intelligence measures without court permission. For example, even if it is known that illegal intoxicating substances are being sold in a certain apartment, police officers cannot break and enter it and no one opens the door for them. And even if someone opens the door, an officer does not have the right to try to purchase such intoxicating substances when performing an investigation,” the President of ABBI cluster described the situation.

Intoxicated with cosmetic spirit

As illegal trade flourishes, billions in taxes do not make it to the budget, crime increases; however, the health of the consumers of surrogates is an equally painful issue. When people buy “bootleg” vodka, they decide that it is made in Belarus or Russia based on the labels. It is bad, they know only that it was transported to Lithuania illegally. Most of them are likely to be surprised if they find out that it is small factories established by hustlers and scattered all over Lithuania not a factory of some neighbouring country where a lot of such products are put up in bottles. And the bottle contains diluted isopropyl spirit designed for cosmetic products and usually made in Poland not vodka made of pure Belorussian water and corn.

“We know Lithuanian products; therefore, falsifying them is hard for the criminals. Vodka in Russia or Belarus is not that much cheaper to pay off to smuggle it en masse. However, buying legally manufactured cosmetic spirit, to which no excise taxes are applied, in Poland is very simple for crooks. All they have to do then is to transport it to Lithuania, put it up in bottles and stick labels with Russian inscriptions on them. A person will not be poisoned by isopropyl spirit at once; however, it is especially harmful to the nervous system and damages it irreversibly when used more often,” R. Apulskis noted.

Such beverages are bought not only by asocial persons. Asocial persons are often satisfied with the products – colognes, mouthwash liquids – sold in kiosks and market places by the companies such as UAB (Private Limited Liability Company) “Bene Factum” which are freely operating in the country. Unfortunately, the research performed by ABBI cluster showed that absolute majority of the buyers do not use those products to put perfume on themselves before a date or to protect their teeth from caries.