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Privatization of Alcohol Sales

buckstag
buckstag
My state recently passed a law that shut down the state run liquor stores and allowed for sales of alcohol ("hard" booze) in most privately owned stores. I just read a statistic about this change based on studies conducted in other areas:

Following privatization, consumption of privatized beverages within the jurisdiction that underwent privatization increased substantially (median relative increase of 44.4%).

Wow, that is a huge increase in hard booze alcohol consumption! It's gotta mean more alcohol addicts will be created in my state. I am not necessarily an advocate of Big Brother, but do we really need to throw gas on the fire? I guess it is the will of the people, or the hard booze lobbyists.
Community Leaderbobinmaine
bobinmaine
We have had that in Maine for many years now. The state just wanted to get out of the liquer business and let the stores make the money instead, and as a matter of convenience for consumers. I don't remember seeing anything about spikes in consumption but I am sure it probably has.
buckstag
buckstag
More interesting data:

Heavy drinking among Americans has increased sharply, up 17.2 percent since 2005.
In 2012, 8.2 percent of all Americans were considered heavy drinkers and 18.3 percent were binge drinkers.

Sure sounds like a serious epidemic if alcohol addiction is a disease. Maybe just more effective marketing by the alcoholic beverage industry?
gr8ful2b
gr8ful2b
Alcoholism is a disease, not "alcohol addiction".
paulokes
paulokes
Everything has a context :)

https://prohibition.osu.edu/sites/prohibition.osu.edu/files/Consumption4.gif

http://www.hoboes.com/Politics/Prohibition/Notes/Drinking/
P
citychick2011
citychick2011
Heavy drinking among Americans has increased sharply, up 17.2 percent since 2005.
In 2012, 8.2 percent of all Americans were considered heavy drinkers and 18.3 percent were binge drinkers.

That is SO HUGE!!!!
citychick2011
citychick2011
You know how they are legalizing pot in some states to be used medically. Has there ever been any studies of alcohol used medically? I don't think so. The only things that I have seen are those half ass studies about a glass of wine here and there being good for you in some way. You know, it is all about the money. Just like the prescription drug big business industry. It always is....I hate how we are destroying our environment and the human race. It is like we are eradicating ourselves.

Do you think someday they will make cigs and alcohol illegal?

Sorry, this is off kilter. Just blabbing....
citychick2011
citychick2011
Whoa, I am all over the place again. I must make another cup of coffee. Tee hee
citychick2011
citychick2011
I just read the prohibition stats. Now that is interesting. Maybe we shouldn't make it illegal....lol

I guess we could never make it illegal. People are addicted to cheesecake and McDonald's too. Are we gonna make that illegal?

Ok. Let me make coffee. I'm so sorry I am running around in a different field, like usual....
citychick2011
citychick2011
The increase makes sense to me Buckstag. By the way, everybody, I don't expect you to comment on my thinking out loud. It was off subject again. Probably should have put it in my journal instead of just randomly typing here! :)
billwfriend
billwfriend
those years our economy was in the trash can so that leads to more drinking too...if you want an economy proof business open a local neighborhood bar...they will be busy come hell or high water and in high water they get there in boats....LOL
DeliAnnem
DeliAnnem
I'd love to know how they came up with those stats...

I'm in PA and I'm still not used to seeing beer at Wegman's.

I wonder if alcohol that's more available will increase sales. I mean, if you have candy at the checkout, people buy it and slam one in the car. But vodka's not exactly like that, right?

I'm just glad I quit.

CityC- I am so there with you. It's arbitrary, IMHO, what's legal and what's not. And the crap they sell us makes us sick. Even "natural" things are genetically modified... What a cray cray world.

Makes me wanna... go for a run! ; D
buckstag
buckstag
I live in a small town. We had 2 state-run hard liquor stores before and now we have hard liquor available at all grocery stores, WalMart, Walgreens etc. Yeah, I think we will be drinking more hard liquor in my neighborhood. Not passing judgement, but it does seem like throwing gasoline on the fire. We also have several legal recreational pot stores now too! And gun sales are up. Times, they are a changing.
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