The third leading cause of preventable death is alcohol.
Last night, there was a group of merchants from various package stores in our city that were upset with our Ordinance 2016-15 that prohibited the sale of packaged alcohol products between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Mayor Pam Triolo seemed to take sympathy with them. Six of the owners spoke claiming they are losing a lot of income from this ordinance.
If the loss of income is really that great, then there were a lot of alcohol sales after 10pm. 20% of someone's business? That is difficult to fathom. Allowing stores to sell alcohol for 15 hours a day is more than adequate. Those who want to purchase it will buy before closing time and maybe it will even cut down on crime.
We know that people enter a convenience store late at night to have that last drink--buy a six-pack or a bottle of wine, drink and drive or simply walk down our city streets while drinking. As we have so much crime in our city with a lot involving alcohol, not just hard drugs, limiting the hours of sale is a good thing. We created new hours that make sense that should help and protect our community residents, even non-drinkers, from experiencing the many harms of excessive drinking. I still believe that extending the hours for our bars and nightclubs was a bad decision.
The enforcement of this new law is as follows: Any violation of any of the provisions of this section shall be prosecuted as a misdemeanor of the second degree and punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) and/or imprisonment in an authorized facility for not more than sixty (60) days. The remedy provided for in this section is not exclusive. The city may pursue any other legal or equitable remedies available under law, including without limitation, code enforcement.
What it says is, Alcohol's 1/10 therapeutic ratio means two shots get you drunk and 20 shots will kill you. Some people can get drunk on one drink depending upon certain factors such as if they're on medications, their weight, etc. and cause harm not only to themselves but to others.
If you are going to go out of business because you can't sell alcohol between the hours of 10 PM and 7AM in our town,then please go out of business. And go out of our town.
ReplyDeleteI got the biggest kick out of all of these convenience store owners, majority of whom were named Muhammad. It's the irony that got to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mistake to think that all people with Muslim names are observant Muslims. Their names tend to give them away, but If your name is Mary, it doesn't mean you are a devout Catholic, or Benjamin an Orthodox Jew. I too fine it ironic, but believe me, with the observant Muslims, they are just apostates, or takfiris. Another word, which just means non-believer, is kefir. Whatever you want to call them, I don't want alcohol sales after 10:00 p.m.. I really don't see much difference between people who traffic in alcohol and drug dealers. There is a point where they intersect.
ReplyDeleteI think when we live in a free society it is wrong to limit what upstanding, law abiding people are doing in an effort to control crime.
ReplyDeleteOk, here, the issue is that drunk losers buy beer at gas stations and then drink in public. Ok, its already a crime to drink in public or be drunk in public, its a crime to trespass, its a crime to loiter.
Police should enforce those laws instead of making law abiding people who need to pick up an extra six pack for a party or BBQ have to leave the City limits to get it. If we want to drink beer in our homes instead of a bar and its past 10 pm why are we being penalized b/c PBSO is too stupid or inept to enforce the laws already on the books. This is like the curfew at the plaza, no need for it if PBSO did their fricken jobs for which we pay more than half our budget for them to do so.
If you can't get your crap together and buy your beer before 10PM then too bad for you . You obviously need to rearrange your priorities so that you don't suffer the horrible fate of having no beer to drink after 10 PM.TRAGIC!
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