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Stupid arbitrary alcohol laws

post #1 of 37
6/16/03 at 9:58am
Thread Starter 
I didn't know where to put this. Move it if you want.

So yesterday (Sunday), I was planning a BBQ with some friends at my house. I went out first thing in the morning to get some groceries: brats, beer, veggies, burgers, etc. I grab all the things I need and head for the cashier. I get carded, of course. (I'm 30, but I get carded about 70% of the time.) Then I find out that even though I'm old enough. I can't buy my beer because it's not 12:00.

Apparently, there's some law that says you can't buy beer from midnight on Saturday till noon on Sunday. Eastern Standard Time, of course. I guess wine is included, but I didn't ask. Here's my take on it: If you think beer is bad stop selling it. Completely. It's bad. If you're going to sell it, sell it. No bullshit 12 hour period when most people are asleep so you can keep part of a commandment in the Bible (which I have the constitutional right to not believe in).

Oh, but you can buy cigarettes and cigars any time. What do you all think? Any stupid alcohol laws where you live?
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post #2 of 37
6/16/03 at 10:48am
Well, it's a local law, and as inconvenient as it may be, communities have the right to determine the standards by which they live as long as they don't conflict federal mandates, which this law does not.

Legislating "vice" is a twisty and ultimately pointless enterprise, but it's done in virtually every American city, and the only thing you can do about is to vote against a referendrum that brings more of these laws.
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post #3 of 37
6/16/03 at 11:03am
Thread Starter 
I thought it was a state law, but I could be wrong. As far as dumb laws go, it's not that bad. I just think it's pointless.

If you're doing it because the bible says remember the sabbath and keep it holy, well that's wrong on a lot of levels. (1)The sabbath lasts all day (even past lunch time), and (2)what with separation of church and state and all, this seems to be breaking a pretty important rule.

I just found it inconvenient,and I ended up drinking American beer because of it. The horror!
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post #4 of 37
6/16/03 at 11:14am
Quote:
Just do Sammy Jankis:
If you're doing it because the bible says remember the sabbath and keep it holy, well that's wrong on a lot of levels. (1)The sabbath lasts all day (even past lunch time), and (2)what with separation of church and state and all, this seems to be breaking a pretty important rule.
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I think the Sabbath inspired the rule, but ultimately, it's just a locally/regionally agreed upon rule to give the sale of liquor a rest for the moral gratification of those who frown upon which WERE, at least, a majority at one time. And it's not a violation of separation of church and state because the state has the right to determine when and how you can be sold substances that can intoxicate and incapcitate you, regardless of whther they fall in with church laws or not.

So in some places they don't allow liquor sales at certain times. Certain places, they ban ephedra-based substances as well. The point is to live where the community reflects YOUR preferences or make an effort to legally change them.
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post #5 of 37
6/16/03 at 11:15am
Welcome to my nightmare. You can't buy beer in grocery stores/convenience stores at all on Sundays in Georgia, though I'm welcome to go to a restaurant and get as hammered as I want and then drive home.

There are also limits on the alcohol content allowed in beer sold, meaning I have to go out of state to get certain beers if I want them. I have friends I go visit in California once a year. One of the highlights of these trips is that I can get my annual Arrogant Bastard Ale, along with many other beers whose alcohol content has been proven to cause blindness.
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post #6 of 37
6/16/03 at 11:46am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
misfit:
Welcome to my nightmare. You can't buy beer in grocery stores/convenience stores at all on Sundays in Georgia, though I'm welcome to go to a restaurant and get as hammered as I want and then drive home.
That's just the lunacy that inspired the thread. It's not like they're truly taking a stand on the issue. They're not saying you can't drink anywhere. Just that you can't buy it and take it home. So the incentive is to drink somewhere else (if you're going to drink anyway) and then everything is fine. (Until you drive home.)

And while I know it's not a direct violation of the separation of church and state, I think it's based on religious views, and that's enough for me.
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post #7 of 37
6/16/03 at 11:59am
Let me get this straight. You want them to be ALL or nothing on bans?

Either let me drink whenever I want and however much I want including DUIs, or ban alcohol altogether?

Is that what you're saying?
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post #8 of 37
6/16/03 at 12:06pm
Thread Starter 
No. Dui's are bad. I'm just pointing out the ineffective and arbitrary aspects of the laws. They appear to be based on keeping Sundays holy, but they're only in effect until noon. (At least for me.) This is not keeping the day holy, but only part of it, which negates the reason for doing it. What they have done instead is legislate an inconvenience.

Outlawing the sale of beer from grocery and convenience stores on Sunday but not from restaurants is also incomplete. You can only buy beer from designated places (which you have to drive to, presumably). If people are going to drink (and some of them are) they have to also travel now. The rule is adding to drunken driving (or at least creating an incentive for it), which is counter to the intent, I'm sure.

Also, I'd like to add that the last 6-pack I bought lasted me from Thanksgiving through Superbowl Sunday, so I'm not a big drinker by any stretch.
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post #9 of 37
6/16/03 at 12:20pm
I think Sammy's point is just that these states put in these laws to pay lip service to the religious types and they don't really do anything other than inconvenience people who might want to do their shopping before noon on Sunday. Certainly not a very steep price to pay but that really only goes to show that the law makers are not really behind this law very much. Again, just pandering to make it look like the state cares about the conservative christians, who tend to carry sway in the south.

I must admit, though, that moving back to Illinois it is nice to know that if I forget to get beer for the Sunday football games, I can still go out & buy some that morning.
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post #10 of 37
6/16/03 at 12:39pm
Thread Starter 
That's a pretty good summary. Thanks.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that bars (and other restaurants that show games and sell beer) were involved in that GA law. If my restaurant is the only place you can get beer on Sunday, and I also happen to be showing the game, I'll get a much bigger crowd than I would if you could grab a 6 pack and head home.

Of course, I guess most of the people who do a lot of drinking are aware of these laws and plan accordingly. Obviously, that group didn't include me.
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post #11 of 37
6/16/03 at 12:50pm
I remember in Ohio it was like that, though we had to wait until 1pm on Sundays. It was such a bitch when you needed to get rid of the shakes, but you drank all your alcohol the night before. wink It sucked to when my friends and I wanted to get in a few games of Beer Die before football.

I was always most upset that I couldn't buy full-proof alcohol at all on Sundays. Cause sometimes you want a Long Island but you're short on Triple Sec.
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post #12 of 37
6/16/03 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Just do Sammy Jankis:

Of course, I guess most of the people who do a lot of drinking are aware of these laws and plan accordingly. Obviously, that group didn't include me.
I don't know about that. I was in a group that did some serious drinking in its day, and we invariably forgot to plan ahead every time. It was always a last minute job, because people we drinking/barhopping the night before. Not many of us wanted to be the "responsible" one who took care of arrangements for the rest of the drunken-monkeys. Then again, my group was pretty unique in its habits.
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post #13 of 37
6/16/03 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
too much drinking leads to double posts.

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post #14 of 37
6/16/03 at 4:43pm
We have the no-alcohol-at-all-on-Sunday rule around here. It includes stores and restaurants. If you forget, you have to drive about 20 miles up to Tennessee where they sell it. There are stores set up within feet of the state line specifically for this purpose. I guess our local lawmakers think that keeping the church crowd happy is more important than the money spent across the border every Sunday.

The alcohol situation is weird in my city. An establishment that has a bar has to make more money off food than alcohol. We don't have any places that are just bars. Several restaurants have really made an effort to have nice bars but as a result they make less money on food and have to shut down within a month. This might be a fairly common law, I don't really know. It just seems like it puts a lot of pressure on restaurateurs.
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post #15 of 37
6/16/03 at 5:17pm
In Kansas we have the no store bought liquor at all on Sundays or holidays. Thing I don't think some of you realise is that the liquor stores really don't care. It has been pushed here a few times to change the law but the store owners stepped in and said they didn't think they would make much money on Sunday anyways and it was better to just stay closed. It gives the owners and managers of the small mom & pop stores a guaranteed day off every week that they might not have been able to have otherwise.

Still pisses me off that I can't buy beer on Sunday though.
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post #16 of 37
6/16/03 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Screaming Wilhelm:
We have the no-alcohol-at-all-on-Sunday rule around here. It includes stores and restaurants. If you forget, you have to drive about 20 miles up to Tennessee where they sell it. There are stores set up within feet of the state line specifically for this purpose. I guess our local lawmakers think that keeping the church crowd happy is more important than the money spent across the border every Sunday.
That would be so...constrictive.

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post #17 of 37
6/16/03 at 8:20pm
Eh, I find most drinking laws to be arbitrary. Here, bars close at 2 am, except on Friday and Saturday night, when they close at 2:30 am. I think that no bar can open before 6 am. Beer and liquor aren't treated differently (well, they are for licensing purposes, but I'm just talking for Joe Sixpack) - liquor stores can open at 8 am, must close by 9. Some municipalities allow a store or 2 to sell until midnight, but that's rare.

The thing is, it's like the drinking age - why 21? Why not 19? Why not 25? Never mind that I've seen 18 year olds hold their liquor well and some 45 year olds who live up to the "instant asshole, just add alcohol" credo.

I've been fucked up by noon, I've drank to dawn; it's just a matter of planning as to how long you can drink. I don't understand the point of all these chintzy laws. As Micah said above, it's regulating vice - something I believe just makes the purveyors of vice wealthier men.
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post #18 of 37
6/17/03 at 4:24pm
eh, in Oklahoma, no buy beer from 2am-8am. Not so bad when I hear the other laws.

Here is a fucked up law. It is from Salt Lake City, Utah.

You can not go to a restaurant and buy two drinks at the same time. For example, you can not get a shot of tequilla and a beer to wash it down. You must buy the tequilla and drink it. Then we you are done, hand the shot glass to the waiter and he will hand you the beer. One drink per person on the table at a time. That was the most retarted law I had ever heard of.

But Vegas. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, free if you are gambling. ahhhhh, Vegas.
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post #19 of 37
6/17/03 at 4:31pm
Thread Starter 
I just found out about another one. You can't buy a pitcher of beer for one person. I can buy bottles all night long (no idea if I can buy more than one at a time) but I can't save some cash by buying a pitcher. This may be a county law.
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post #20 of 37
6/17/03 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Just do Sammy Jankis:
I just found out about another one. You can't buy a pitcher of beer for one person. I can buy bottles all night long (no idea if I can buy more than one at a time) but I can't save some cash by buying a pitcher. This may be a county law.
in Oklahoma, you can sell a pitcher of beer to one person, but you have to have an ID for every cup you give out. That is smart, though.
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post #21 of 37
6/17/03 at 4:48pm
Well, the drinking age is 18 in Quebec and it's loosely enforced. I've never understood the 21 drinking age.
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post #22 of 37
6/17/03 at 4:49pm
Restricting alcohol sales on Sunday is the silliest sort of prudish way for religious busybodies to try to influence laws to curb a behavior they sniffingly don't approve of. These laws are archaic and ridiculous.

And yes, I'm often thirsty on Sunday.
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post #23 of 37
6/17/03 at 6:13pm
If this is so bothersome, why doesn't someone start a campaign to ease that law off the books? Here in California we're prepared to sack our governor and you folks can't get a simple ordinance changed. For shame, for shame...
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post #24 of 37
6/17/03 at 6:26pm
If you want to drink before noon on a Sunday, then you could be an alcoholic. The government's just looking out for you.
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post #25 of 37
6/17/03 at 6:39pm
Quote:
piranhapictures:
If you want to drink before noon on a Sunday, then you could be an alcoholic. The government's just looking out for you.
A: We're not just talking about 'before noon'. In Georgia you have to go to a bar if you care to buy alcohol on a Sunday. In some counties, you can't even do that.

B: Not everyone keeps the same hours. Plenty of folks work evening and overnight shifts.

C: No lawmaker elected in the South has the cojones to stand up to the religious right.
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post #26 of 37
6/17/03 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Burke: Accept No Substitutes:
If this is so bothersome, why doesn't someone start a campaign to ease that law off the books? Here in California we're prepared to sack our governor and you folks can't get a simple ordinance changed. For shame, for shame...
I said earlier that at least in my area the liquor stores don't care about being closed on Sunday. When a campaign was started the store owners just got together and said they would rather have Sundays and holidays off.
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post #27 of 37
6/17/03 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Jacob Singer
A: We're not just talking about 'before noon'. In Georgia you have to go to a bar if you care to buy alcohol on a Sunday. In some counties, you can't even do that.

B: Not everyone keeps the same hours. Plenty of folks work evening and overnight shifts.

C: No lawmaker elected in the South has the cojones to stand up to the religious right.[/QB][/QUOTE]

If people want to drink on Sunday in one of these states, then they should plan ahead.

I think this thread make a nice companion piece to that seatbelt thread...as in, "stupid laws that we don't need."
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post #28 of 37
6/17/03 at 7:22pm
Quote:
piranhapictures:
If you want to drink before noon on a Sunday, then you could be an alcoholic. The government's just looking out for you.
As a 32 year old man, I can look out for myself, thank you. And football games start at noon. If I have NFL Sunday Ticket at home, why should I have to go to a bar if I want beer. Then again, I could buy it the week before and keep it in my fridge, but that is beside the point. And if someone wants to have a barbeque on a sunday they should be able to have beer if they want to. It makes no one an alcoholic just because they want to buy beer on a Sunday before noon.
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post #29 of 37
6/17/03 at 7:41pm
Quote:
piranhapictures
If you want to drink before noon on a Sunday, then you could be an alcoholic. The government's just looking out for you.
Fuck the government...I'm no alcoholic. Alcoholics go to them meetings.

Now go get me a whiskey sour.
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post #30 of 37
6/17/03 at 7:56pm
Well, my first day off each week is Sunday, and if I don't think ahead and buy beer on Saturday, my plans sorta get fucked up once in a while. I tend to keep a little beer in the fridge as insurance these days. I guess if liquor store owners in Kansas want Sunday off, that's fine, but if the law didn't mandate Sunday closings I know a few stores would stay open to pick up the extra business.

Hey Otis, do you know if breweries are exempt from the no sale on Sunday law? You can go into Free State in Lawrence and buy a jug of their beer to take home, but I've never tried on Sunday. That's something to think about.
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post #31 of 37
6/18/03 at 3:13pm
Quote:
piranhapictures:
If you want to drink before noon on a Sunday, then you could be an alcoholic. The government's just looking out for you.
I may have a drinking problem, but I don't need the government to tell me so. I already know, so just let me drink in peace, thank you. As long as I don't bother anyone but myself, who the hell cares if I get bombed on a Sunday morning? I am already going to hell for lots of other things, so I don't give two shits what God might think.

Plus, like has been said already, sometimes you want to have a get together for a game. Well, you don't just invite people over, then leave them to get beer cause you had to wait until 2pm or whatever. That's fucked up.

Oh, and seatbelt laws are fucking stupid. If you need a law to tell you to perform an act that will save your life, you are an idiot. People shouldn't need to be parented from the government, which is exactly what these types of laws do. Failure to use a seatbelt is gambling with your life, and people should live(or not) with the consequences. Sure it sucks, but you shouldn't need the government telling you what to do.

Drunken tirade over, back to playing Beer Die.
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post #32 of 37
6/18/03 at 3:39pm
Quote:
billz3bub, Enthusiasm Enthusiast:
Hey Otis, do you know if breweries are exempt from the no sale on Sunday law? You can go into Free State in Lawrence and buy a jug of their beer to take home, but I've never tried on Sunday. That's something to think about.
Yup, they are exempt. Get yourself a couple Blind Tiger jugs and you can get them filled on a Sunday.

***edited to add***

You can't buy a new jug on Sunday, you can only get an empty filled. As far as I know there is no limit. I think me and a friend had about six or seven filled on a Sunday a few years back.

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post #33 of 37
6/18/03 at 5:23pm
Excellent news! I now have an oasis of hope for my Sunday drinking needs. Luckily I have two Free State jugs in ye old closet. Thanks for the info, OTP. This Sunday may just be a Free State day.
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post #34 of 37
6/18/03 at 5:38pm
They actually used to have to do things in a certain order to sell the refills on Sunday. After they filled the jug you had to pay for it before they sealed the top. That way you were just buying a very large beer on tap. Been a long time since I've done this they might not have to anymore.
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post #35 of 37
6/18/03 at 5:41pm
I grew up in south Louisiana where, well, let's just say the commitment to drinking is wholesale. For instance, well into the 90's, one could buy a frozen alcoholic bev from a drive-thru daquari (sp) stand and the server would even stick the straw in it for you. Some drive through liquor stores sold draft beer for 75 cents in a 12 oz. cup. In the mid 90's, most cities enacted open container laws, so the daquari stands started putting tape over the straw hole and handing the driver the straw.
Damn I miss that place.
In TX, you can buy only beer and wine on Sundays, after noon. Got to stock up on the whiskey before 9 p.m. on Saturday or do without for the rest of the weekend.
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post #36 of 37
6/18/03 at 5:46pm
Well, I would have thought the sticking point was the actual carrying beer off the premises, but then again, I have never seen the written law. I'm just glad it's possible. If I liked Blind Tiger beer more, I would just go there, but they are no Free State. I can't tell you how many pints of John Brown Ale I drank on one particular Monday night. My credit card receipt said we had 30 rounds, but I'll be damned if I remember it.
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post #37 of 37
6/18/03 at 5:54pm
Not a big fan of Blind Tiger beer either, that's why I haven't done the Sunday thing there in a very long time.
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