ALCOHOL REGULATIONS:in the public’s best interest

Good Public Policy Guides Sunday Sales

Alcohol guidelines enacted throughout history serve to minimize the effects of alcohol on the health and safety of the population. Indiana’s three-tier system works well to ensure the proper regulation, distribution and tax revenue collection from alcohol beverages.

Good public alcohol policy seeks to limit the availability of alcohol through permitting, zoning, age restrictions and hour restrictions. The state created package liquor stores to control access to alcohol. Lifting restrictions on Sunday Sales and cold beer purchases will shutter package stores and, in effect, inhibit Indiana’s ability to control liquor sales. Current Indiana law restricts the number of hours that alcohol can be sold. There are no carry-out sales of alcohol on Sunday.

Sunday alcohol sales are allowed at sporting events, bars, restaurants and taverns where bartenders, waitresses and other servers take responsibility for encouraging moderate and responsible alcohol consumption in their facilities. Alcohol purchased for off-premise use is not monitored by licensed and trained servers.

Sunday ushers a day of rest for many religious people and provides peace in neighborhoods on a day when alcohol is not sold. This policy also reinforces public safety and public health concerns to limit availability.

Increasing the number of hours alcohol can be sold by a full day is a substantial jump in availability.

• After New Mexico allowed Sunday sales a study published in the American
  Journal of Public Health found a 29 percent overall increase in alcohol-related
  crashes and a 42 percent increase in alcohol-related crash fatalities on Sundays. Greater access to alcohol means a potential increase in alcohol-related traffic accidents.
  American Journal of Public Health
  
  
• European studies suggest that increased hours of sale for alcohol may affect rates of problem drinking, cirrhosis mortality and other types of alcohol-related problems (e.g., traffic crashes, violence) (Duffy and Pinot de Moira, 1996; Hooper, 1983; Smith, 1986).

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“A 2006 poll commissioned by The Indianapolis Star found that, by a slim margin, Hoosiers favored keeping state laws that prevent most Sunday alcohol sales.”

The Indianapolis Star, 9/21/08

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With 2,000 additional Indiana outlets selling ready-to-drink cold beer,common sense tells you that our state’s very low number of alcohol related deaths would increase substantially. That’s way too high a price to pay for convenience.

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Current Indiana Law Limits Sale of Cold Beer to Controlled Environments
Package Liquor Stores among Most Regulated

Cold beer, like wine and liquor, is a regulated beverage that should be sold in a controlled environment, especially since beer is the alcohol beverage of choice for underage drinkers. The sales environment in package stores is the most conducive to limiting underage sales or theft. Indiana limits the sale of cold beer to the most regulated outlets, package liquor stores and restaurants.

Cold beer is …

• Sold by licensed and trained clerks that are over 21 years old. No high school students can sell to other students.
• Sold for carry-out in a store or barroom where patrons must be 21 years old to enter.
• Sold in a store that only sells alcohol.
• Sold in stores that are more heavily patrolled by excise police.
• Only sold in package stores in an incorporated city or town. Each community is limited to one package store for every 8,000 persons. This eliminates many locations on major
  highways.

Disregarding restrictions on conditions of sale and limitations on the number of outlets selling cold beer will impact underage drinking and traffic fatalities.

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Hazards Associated with Expanded Beer Sales

If Indiana allows cold, ready-to-drink beer sales at gas station/convenience
stores and others, the ratio of highly regulated package stores to additional cold-beer retailers would triple, with many more applying for available permits. The expansion of beer sales would be in stores with no restrictions on the conditions of sale within the store.

• On average, a single gas station minimart selling alcohol contributes 4.75 times more to drinking-and-driving episodes than regular convenience stores.
  
  
• Beer consumption accounts for 81% of all the alcohol consumed in hazardous amounts (defined as five or more drinks per day) in the U.S.
  
  
• Beer is the drink most commonly consumed by people stopped for alcohol-impaired driving or involved in alcohol-related crashes.
  
  
• 80% of drivers arrested for DWI reported that beer was their alcoholic beverage of choice.
  Statistics from BeerSoaksAmerica.org
  
  
• In a self-reported survey of minors who drink alcohol, 42% stole the alcohol

Statistic from Drug Free Marion County –Underage and Binge Drinking Data Report

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Get the Facts: Alcohol Abuse and Underage Drinking in Indiana

FACT: Alcohol-related crashes cost Indiana residents $1 per drink. In 2001, the societal cost of underage drinking to the citizens of Indiana was $1.3 billion. These costs include medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering associated with the multiple problems that stem from underage drinking. This translates to a cost of $2,124 per year for
each youth in the State.

FACT: Indiana ranks 28th highest among the 50 states for the cost
per youth of underage drinking.

FACT: Excluding pain and suffering from these costs, the direct costs of underage drinking incurred through medical care and loss of work cost Indiana $454
million each year.

www.udetc.org/factsheets/Indiana.pdf