A bill to legalize moonshining was drafted by five members of the Seimas (parliament) of Lithuania from the Social Liberal faction and is now being prepared for a second reading (it was submitted to the Seimas in September 2002). To the surprise of its authors, the project passed the first reading successfully, and a special commission is now continuing to study the document. The bill allows the production of home vodka, brew, and other alcoholic beverages with a special license.
Legalization, according to the deputies, will make it possible to control the process of production and sale of alcoholic beverages made at home, as well as preserve the ethnic traditions of Lithuanian regions. For example, in many villages and hamlets, especially in southern Lithuania, moonshine is drunk even at public events despite the ban. The production of alcoholic beverages at home has currently reached enormous proportions, and the lack of control over this process threatens the lives of many people.
An important advantage of legalizing moonshining could be additional revenue to the state budget. As deputy Rikvides Vashtekes said, "absolutely everyone knows that moonshining is an integral part of life in rural areas, so why shouldn't the state take this process under control?" Practically every village has three or four stills for producing moonshine, which weekly supply consumers with dozens of liters of this drink. Vashtekes believes that the country should follow the path of Austria and Finland, which long ago legalized this process. The cost of a half-liter bottle of high-quality moonshine (and the quality there is monitored) in these countries sometimes reaches 17 euros, while a factory-produced product is valued at only 4-5 euros. So legalized production of alcoholic beverages at home could bring much more benefit to the country.
However, despite all the advantages, Deputy Vashtekes does not believe that this bill will be adopted. In his opinion, the citizens of Lithuania, and especially the government, need more time for "the worldview on this important issue to change." But the deputies do not intend to give up: if the law is not adopted now, they will introduce it again. The deputies have already proposed abolishing criminal liability and mitigating administrative liability for moonshining.
According to Deputy Dalia Teisherskite, who participated in drafting the bill, the fact that one can get up to five years in prison (according to other sources, up to eight) for storing or producing moonshine is complete absurdity. As she stated, "people should be jailed for causing harm to others, and moonshining does not harm anyone." Moreover, frequent cases of bribing law enforcement officers who discovered illegally produced alcoholic beverages indicate the ineffectiveness of the law.
It should also be said that the former President of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, solemnly promised not to allow the legalization of moonshining, although he himself drank moonshine on more than one occasion. The opinion of the new president, Rolandas Paksas, on this issue is not yet known. Ordinary people can only wait and hope for the appearance of legalized Lithuanian moonshine in stores. After all, according to many experts, no one knows how to make it better than the Lithuanians.