Penza, 12 December 2014. PenzaNews. The deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region plan to submit a federal law draft that defines the term “low-alcohol tonic beverages” and introduces a retail sales ban for aforementioned product type in the country.

According to the explanatory note for the draft, this category includes alcohol beverages with 1.2-9% vol. containing caffeine or other additives in amounts sufficient to induce invigoration in a person.

The document stresses that such products are usually made of low-quality alcohol and additives.

“The danger of increasing popularity of alcohol tonic beverages was officially admitted on the highest level. Researchers have found that such beverages are detrimental to the state of cardiovascular system, while mixed consumption of caffeine and alcohol cause increased risk of caffeine-alcoholic dehydration. Market analysis of these beverages shows they are mostly oriented at young adults,” the explanatory note mentions.

It also says that current legislation has no definition for the term “low-alcohol tonic beverages,” which provides no legal grounds for the regions of the Russian Federation to separate them from other alcohol production and introduce retail sales prohibitions on this group.

Under this reasoning, the draft suggests introducing changes to the Article 2 of the Federal Law “On state regulation of ethanol and alcoholic beverages production and sales, and limitations on alcohol consumption,” by adding the aforementioned term, and changing the Article 26 to introduce a retail sales ban on these beverages.

The draft will be submitted for changes at the next session of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region on Tuesday, December 16.