Bootleg liquor kills 143 people

Story here. And yes, I didn't believe that number when I first heard it either.

Quote :

SANGRAMPUR, INDIA—Indian officials ordered a criminal investigation Thursday after 143 people died within 48 hours of drinking tainted bootleg alcohol in the state of West Bengal.

The death toll was expected to rise given that dozens of patients remain in area hospitals in critical condition.

The government of the eastern state promised to give $4,000 to each victim’s family and arrested at least seven people for allegedly selling the liquor, although those who manufactured it were reportedly on the run.

Emergency medical teams rushed to the village outside Kolkata, and thousands of relatives, many of them wailing in grief, gathered outside the packed hospital. Inside, dead bodies lay on the floor covered in quilts, while the ill waited on staircases to be treated. Groups of men sat in the halls with saline drips running into their arms.

Abdul Gayen cried inconsolably for his son, Safiulla, a labourer who drank some of the liquor Monday night and then complained of light-headedness. When Safiulla woke up the next morning, he fell and began frothing at the mouth, Gayen said. He died before his family could get him to the hospital.

Most of those who died were rickshaw pullers, manual labourers and others living on the margin who drank the liquor at a series of thekas, makeshift roadside bars, all supplied by the same illegal distillery.

Local officials said victims started getting sick Tuesday night around Sangrampur after drinking the homebrew, known locally as chepti, which was laced with methanol. Used as a fuel, solvent or antifreeze, methanol is highly toxic and ingesting it can lead to blindness or death.

By Wednesday morning, patients were pouring into area hospitals complaining of stomach pain, diarrhea and breathing problems as the death toll mounted.

D: Good lord, those poor people. But why were so many people buying this stuff anyway when they could get perfectly good, legal, non-lethal... oh wait...

Quote :

So-called country liquor is often sold in plastic bags for as little as 20 cents for a half litre — less than a third the price of legal alcohol, district magistrate Naraya Swarup Nigam said. It’s widespread in Indian cities and rural areas and deaths are not uncommon, although most poisoning happens on a smaller scale. In 2009, however, 130 people died from a batch of tainted alcohol in the western state of Gujarat.

West Bengal’s illegal alcohol industry thrives because many senior politicians and influential businessmen have ownership stakes and local police receive bribes to look the other way, said S.H. Muinuddin, a sociology professor at West Bengal’s Vidyasagar University.

“Corruption is the most important factor, or how else would these businesses flourish?” he said. “We need the government to take action.”

Despite religious and cultural taboos against imbibing, alcohol consumption and related social problem are rising sharply, particularly among the young. Five per cent of the country’s population — roughly 60 million people — are alcoholics. Two-thirds of the alcohol consumed in the country is illegal homemade hooch or undocumented liquor smuggled in, according to The Lancet medical journal.

Because illegal alcohol is sold so cheaply and those who consume it tend to like it strong, its distillers often use cheap, adulterated ingredients to make a profit, said Pradip Prabhu, dean of rural development studies at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

In some cases, homebrew is handed out to labourers as part of their pay, said Prabhu. As states have increased taxes on legal liquor to boost revenue, more people drink far cheaper moonshine, leading to domestic violence, broken homes and deaths.

“Unfortunately, police tend to look on it as something you live with,” Prabhu said.

As the death toll mounted Wednesday, police destroyed 10 illicit liquor shops in Diamond Harbor, one of the affected communities. But analysts said most will probably be back in business once the furor dies down.

...Fantastic.

143 people?!! Jesus.

Chris91 wrote:

143 people?!! Jesus, what's the main ingredient in that bootleg liquor, cyanide?!

Methanol, actually.

Quote :

Local officials said victims started getting sick Tuesday night around Sangrampur after drinking the homebrew, known locally as chepti, which was laced with methanol. Used as a fuel, solvent or antifreeze, methanol is highly toxic and ingesting it can lead to blindness or death.

Raine wrote:

Chris91 wrote:

143 people?!! Jesus, what's the main ingredient in that bootleg liquor, cyanide?!

Methanol, actually.

Quote :

Local officials said victims started getting sick Tuesday night around Sangrampur after drinking the homebrew, known locally as chepti, which was laced with methanol. Used as a fuel, solvent or antifreeze, methanol is highly toxic and ingesting it can lead to blindness or death.

Yeah, I re-read the article right after posting the original message. Thanks for the fact-check.

Death toll from India toxic liquor rises to 170

Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does....

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to blame the local governments than the shop owners, tbh - all the owners and even the brewers are doing is responding to a market that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the taxes on alcohol being so high.

Seule wrote:

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to blame the local governments than the shop owners, tbh - all the owners and even the brewers are doing is responding to a market that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the taxes on alcohol being so high.

That's like blaming the U.S. government for Chinese imports being full of toxins. It was the fault of the brewers who added something they knew was toxic. If the shop owners knew about it, it was also their fault for selling it.

Lady Anne wrote:

Seule wrote:

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to blame the local governments than the shop owners, tbh - all the owners and even the brewers are doing is responding to a market that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the taxes on alcohol being so high.

That's like blaming the U.S. government for Chinese imports being full of toxins. It was the fault of the brewers who added something they knew was toxic. If the shop owners knew about it, it was also their fault for selling it.

I agree about the smaller parts being just as responsible. It's not like the shop owners don't know it's pumped full of "other ingredients" either seeing this isn't an isolated event (and what else would booze this cheap be full of?). They're knowingly making money by preying on the addicted and poor, not caring if their product kills.

Seule wrote:

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to blame the local governments than the shop owners, tbh - all the owners and even the brewers are doing is responding to a market that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the taxes on alcohol being so high.

Thank you.

There wouldn't be an uncontrolled underground market for this stuff if the idiots in the government hadn't made it so impossible to afford products made by legitimate brewers.

Raine wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Seule wrote:

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to blame the local governments than the shop owners, tbh - all the owners and even the brewers are doing is responding to a market that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the taxes on alcohol being so high.

That's like blaming the U.S. government for Chinese imports being full of toxins. It was the fault of the brewers who added something they knew was toxic. If the shop owners knew about it, it was also their fault for selling it.

I agree about the smaller parts being just as responsible. It's not like the shop owners don't know it's pumped full of "other ingredients" either seeing this isn't an isolated event (and what else would booze this cheap be full of?). They're knowingly making money by preying on the addicted and poor, not caring if their product kills.

Yeah, but what's more likely - large groups of callous brewers preying on the poor by crafting cheap alcohol purposefully laced with toxic ingredients or, uh, large groups of similarly poor, unskilled brewers crafting cheap alcohol with the cheap ingredients they have available and mistakenly lacing them with toxic ingredients due to ignorance?

I'm sorry, but... I think the second.

If you're really jaded though, you can look at it like this: it's never in the brewers' interests to make their alcohol dangerous. They won't get repeat customers if it is. There's no motive. They're just poor, and responding to a demand without any form of skill or education in the things they are manufacturing. Which will happen, if the legal alternative is unattainable (see: every drug ever).

Seule wrote:

Yeah, but what's more likely - large groups of callous brewers preying on the poor by crafting cheap alcohol purposefully laced with toxic ingredients or, uh, large groups of similarly poor, unskilled brewers crafting cheap alcohol with the cheap ingredients they have available and mistakenly lacing them with toxic ingredients due to ignorance?

I'm sorry, but... I think the second.

If you're really jaded though, you can look at it like this: it's never in the brewers' interests to make their alcohol dangerous. They won't get repeat customers if it is. There's no motive. They're just poor, and responding to a demand without any form of skill or education in the things they are manufacturing. Which will happen, if the legal alternative is unattainable (see: every drug ever).

I was mostly thinking they put whatever is cheapest in there and fuck the rest, including their customers. As long as they get the money, it doesn't matter. They have to have some sort of idea about what their product is doing (without proper knowledge about the ingredients), but maybe since they're selling to roadside bars they don't really see the "human cost". You'd think the people running these roadside pubs would be able to see that though - like a regular customer stops coming, or they hear stories, or maybe even families stop by to accuse them over what happened.

Maybe I am jaded though... I just find it so hard to believe people are doing this all out of ignorance.

Raine wrote:

Seule wrote:

Yeah, but what's more likely - large groups of callous brewers preying on the poor by crafting cheap alcohol purposefully laced with toxic ingredients or, uh, large groups of similarly poor, unskilled brewers crafting cheap alcohol with the cheap ingredients they have available and mistakenly lacing them with toxic ingredients due to ignorance?

I'm sorry, but... I think the second.

If you're really jaded though, you can look at it like this: it's never in the brewers' interests to make their alcohol dangerous. They won't get repeat customers if it is. There's no motive. They're just poor, and responding to a demand without any form of skill or education in the things they are manufacturing. Which will happen, if the legal alternative is unattainable (see: every drug ever).

I was mostly thinking they put whatever is cheapest in there and fuck the rest, including their customers. As long as they get the money, it doesn't matter. They have to have some sort of idea about what their product is doing (without proper knowledge about the ingredients), but maybe since they're selling to roadside bars they don't really see the "human cost". You'd think the people running these roadside pubs would be able to see that though - like a regular customer stops coming, or they hear stories, or maybe even families stop by to accuse them over what happened.

Maybe I am jaded though... I just find it so hard to believe people are doing this all out of ignorance.

This. And you'd think these brewers, however poor and uneducated, would still quickly gain enough experience to know how to make a safe product that keeps the customers coming back for more. They remind me of drug manufacturers and distributors who cut the product with deadly poisons. They don't care who suffers as long as they get their money, and there will always be new users. The individual dealer whose product kills can usually be found out, if not by the cops then by the users and their friends and families, but the manufacturers and distributors are harder to trace and harder to catch.

Lady Anne wrote:

Raine wrote:

Seule wrote:

Yeah, but what's more likely - large groups of callous brewers preying on the poor by crafting cheap alcohol purposefully laced with toxic ingredients or, uh, large groups of similarly poor, unskilled brewers crafting cheap alcohol with the cheap ingredients they have available and mistakenly lacing them with toxic ingredients due to ignorance?

I'm sorry, but... I think the second.

If you're really jaded though, you can look at it like this: it's never in the brewers' interests to make their alcohol dangerous. They won't get repeat customers if it is. There's no motive. They're just poor, and responding to a demand without any form of skill or education in the things they are manufacturing. Which will happen, if the legal alternative is unattainable (see: every drug ever).

I was mostly thinking they put whatever is cheapest in there and fuck the rest, including their customers. As long as they get the money, it doesn't matter. They have to have some sort of idea about what their product is doing (without proper knowledge about the ingredients), but maybe since they're selling to roadside bars they don't really see the "human cost". You'd think the people running these roadside pubs would be able to see that though - like a regular customer stops coming, or they hear stories, or maybe even families stop by to accuse them over what happened.

Maybe I am jaded though... I just find it so hard to believe people are doing this all out of ignorance.

This. And you'd think these brewers, however poor and uneducated, would still quickly gain enough experience to know how to make a safe product that keeps the customers coming back for more. They remind me of drug manufacturers and distributors who cut the product with deadly poisons. They don't care who suffers as long as they get their money, and there will always be new users. The individual dealer whose product kills can usually be found out, if not by the cops then by the users and their friends and families, but the manufacturers and distributors are harder to trace and harder to catch.

Both of you are fucking idiots, and completely missed Sally's (I can never spell your name right, so you're Sally now, get used it it ) point. They'd make more money if they did it right. Their source of income is the people buying the liquor. They have a continuing interest in the continuing existence of those people. If they have any brains at all the won't intentionally kill them.

Not to mention the felony charges and what not that come from such actions. There is no benefit from deliberately adding something so poisonous. The cause is most likely because these people are inept to begin with, and on top of that, need to brew it discreetly in order to avoid government horseshit. This required secrecy can lead to stuff like brewing the brew in someone's cobweb infested basement where they may also be storing other stuff, stuff like paint thinner, instead of doing it in a proper location dedicated to making alcohol. Then some illiterate farmer puts stuff from the wrong can into the mix, or something accidentally leaks into the brew and no one notices, or any other number of fuck ups happen and go unnoticed because the cow worshipping untouchable putzes don't have a quality control department.

The only deliberate choice that lead to this was the fucking idiots in the government taxing the legitimate brewers out of the market, leaving only witless clowns to supply alcohol they brewed ankle deep in cow shit in their aunt's basement to the masses.

But Mikey...

Quote :

West Bengal’s illegal alcohol industry thrives because many senior politicians and influential businessmen have ownership stakes and local police receive bribes to look the other way, said S.H. Muinuddin, a sociology professor at West Bengal’s Vidyasagar University.

“Corruption is the most important factor, or how else would these businesses flourish?” he said. “We need the government to take action.”

Because illegal alcohol is sold so cheaply and those who consume it tend to like it strong, its distillers often use cheap, adulterated ingredients to make a profit, said Pradip Prabhu, dean of rural development studies at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

I took that part of the article as thinking the brewers just don't give a shit about making it properly, regardless of knowledge or not. And local authorities don't care because they're either being bribed or getting a cut of the profits. It just felt like the government only stepped in this time was because of the high death toll. =/

But yes, I do understand they'd ultimately make a greater profit by not making it lethal. It's just that they don't seem to care in this case.

From what I understand, there is a reason to add methanol, if you're a shitty bootlegger. Makes it easier to make the hooch more potent. It is also a really stupid thing to do, since it's poison. But it can also be present if you use shitty components in your still. But for it to be in life-threatening quantities, it usually has to be added on purpose.

Most people on this board are too nice to sink to the depths of the minds of the manufacturers. You can't think just how heartless and ruthless these dealers are.

Drug dealers will knowingly cut their drugs with anything to hand, knowingly cutting it with poisons as often as talcum powder. What do they care if their user dies? Oh, repeat customers are nice but there will always be more customers. Many of their customers aren't important anyway; who cares if a crack whore has a fatal overdose? There will always be more crack whores out there.

The same goes for alcohol. If it doesn't kill that's all to the good, but these makers will add whatever needs to be added to make it go further. India is hideously overpopulated. And alcoholics are drug addicts. And they will keep coming back, even if they know it's going to kill them.

So in the bootlegger's eyes, there will always be more customers. Oh, this was an irritating setback and they didn't MEAN to kill people sure... but so what if they did? They don't care.

THEY DO NOT CARE IF PEOPLE DIE. Not in the slightest. They are very rich, very powerful, and completely ruthless, and they don't care that people are dead, and they don't care if this exact same thing happens again - or again after that. Just so long as they don't get caught. Because there will always be people out there who will buy their liquor regardless of how dangerous it is.

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

They are very rich, very powerful

EXCEPT THEY'RE NOT. Look, I don't get why you think this. I looked around to see if anywhere reported any suspects, and the only one was this article, which names a brewer as... a labourer living in the slums. It's not some rich, powerful mafia organisation, it's a bunch of people living in poverty making some hooch in their back gardens. Of course the deaths are the fault of the brewers, but what help is the government? If booze is taxed so high people are willing to drink stuff some guy's made in a bathtub, coming down harder on street sellers isn't going to solve a bloody thing.

Raine wrote:

But Mikey...

Quote :

West Bengal’s illegal alcohol industry thrives because many senior politicians and influential businessmen have ownership stakes and local police receive bribes to look the other way, said S.H. Muinuddin, a sociology professor at West Bengal’s Vidyasagar University.

“Corruption is the most important factor, or how else would these businesses flourish?” he said. “We need the government to take action.”

Because illegal alcohol is sold so cheaply and those who consume it tend to like it strong, its distillers often use cheap, adulterated ingredients to make a profit, said Pradip Prabhu, dean of rural development studies at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

I took that part of the article as thinking the brewers just don't give a shit about making it properly, regardless of knowledge or not. And local authorities don't care because they're either being bribed or getting a cut of the profits. It just felt like the government only stepped in this time was because of the high death toll. =/

But yes, I do understand they'd ultimately make a greater profit by not making it lethal. It's just that they don't seem to care in this case.

>2011
>Still reading articles

I seriously hope you guys don't do this.

But even this guy is saying the government is the main problem, not the brewers. He's saying it's because of corruption instead of incompetence, however. Which of course means the criminals in the government are going to hunt down and persecute the enterprising businessmen.

Harley wrote:

Most people on this board are too nice to sink to the depths of the minds of the manufacturers.

Not you though. I'm sure the author of 701 fics about underage hedgehog rape is going to explain to us just how twisted people can be.

Harley wrote:

The same goes for alcohol. If it doesn't kill that's all to the good, but these makers will add whatever needs to be added to make it go further.

Water is more readily available and cheaper than menthol. No rational person is going to going out of their way to use an ingredient that is more dangerous than a cheaper, easier to get substitute.

Quote :

Just so long as they don't get caught.

The best way to not get caught is to not draw attention to your illegal activities by killing 143 people. Once again, no rational person is going to intentionally do this.

And a sociopath is going to opt for a more entertaining way to kill people.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

like for serious

thats just sad, poor babies.

Quote :

Water is more readily available and cheaper than menthol. No rational person is going to going out of their way to use an ingredient that is more dangerous than a cheaper, easier to get substitute.

Clean water, cheap and readily available in India? Mikey, are you THAT stupid? Christ, the menthol's probably safer.

Besides, on a more serious note, they'll cut it with whatever's in arm's reach. Not kidding. Whatever they can keep the smell or the strength with. The incompetance, stupidity, and ruthlessness of such people knows no bounds. As well as their callous disregard for human life. After all, THEY'RE not going to be the ones drinking it, so why would THEY care?

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Quote :

Water is more readily available and cheaper than menthol. No rational person is going to going out of their way to use an ingredient that is more dangerous than a cheaper, easier to get substitute.

Clean water, cheap and readily available in India? Mikey, are you THAT stupid? Christ, the menthol's probably safer.

Besides, on a more serious note, they'll cut it with whatever's in arm's reach. Not kidding. Whatever they can keep the smell or the strength with. The incompetance, stupidity, and ruthlessness of such people knows no bounds. As well as their callous disregard for human life. After all, THEY'RE not going to be the ones drinking it, so why would THEY care?

Actually, almost 85% of India's population has ready supply of clean water. That's nowhere near as good as some countries, but it's hardly a "menthol is safer" situation - they're better off than Turkey and Georgia, for instance, and not even touching most of Northern Africa.

I hope you don't need me to point out why the rest of what you posted is ridiculous. I already talked about the demographics of the brewers, but you just kind of ignored it. They probably will cut it with whatever is at arm's reach, but not for the reasons you think. As for them not drinking it, that seems rather unlikely to me but... you're Harley.

Menthol
Methanol

^ I have no idea how I missed that.

insert obligatory "at least they didn't have a sore throat" joke here

Lady Anne wrote:

Menthol
Methanol

. . .

How long have we been making that mistake?