Between January and September 2009 more than 250 Ugandans were killed by alcohol poisoning. The victims in northern, central and southwestern Uganda killed as a result of consuming of sachet-packed alcohol and local gin laced with concentrated methanol to increase their potency.
The Ministry of Health and parliament responded quickly, proposing a ban on all sachet-packed alcohol and district authorities enacted old alcohol consumption laws to curb local gin trade. It was a whirlwind of debate and action that quickly, as quickly as it surfaced, faded away.
National Perspective reports: The Alcohol Poisoning Plague.
