Posts Tagged ‘hard liquor’

Alaska: Panels mull restrictions on cheap liquor

October 28th, 2010 | Author:
Source: The Associated Press
October 15th, 2010 07:23 AM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The city of Anchorage would crack down on some stores selling cheap liquor often purchased by street inebriates under rules to be studied by four community councils.
The rules are based on a law approved by the Anchorage Assembly for the Downtown Community Council district.
The law passed this week prevents the sale of wine costing less than $10 a bottle, six-packs of beer costing less than $6 and bottles of liquor priced less than $10 or smaller than 750 milliliters.
The law also mandates that individual containers have stickers identifying what store they came from and it prohibits stores from posting prices or beer signs on windows.

Community councils for Mountain View, Northeast, Fairview and Government Hill now are looking toward restrictions in their districts.

The new ordinance, pushed by Anchorage Assembly Vice Chair Patrick Flynn, affects four downtown liquor stores, which already had the restrictions as part of their individual permits to sell alcohol. Future liquor stores in the area also will have to follow the pricing restrictions.
Litter around town makes it clear that the cheaper alcohol is what’s being abused on the streets, Flynn said.
“Whoever you’re selling it to, it’s finding its way into the hands of somebody that’s not using it responsibly,” he said.

In Government Hill, there has been a drastic increase in public drunkenness in the last two years, according to council president Bob French. The neighborhood’s lone liquor store sells cheaper alcohol than is available anywhere else in the nearby vicinity and draws customers from downtown, he said.

“If you’re a public inebriate, and you have no income, (a) dollar a bottle is worth making a mile trek across a bridge,” French said.
Sharon Chamard, Fairview’s community council president, said the council would look closer at price restrictions, but she added that it is yet to be determined how the restrictions would affect responsible drinkers.
“I’d really want to know if those products are primarily used by the chronic inebriates,” she said. “I think that some of these restrictions might be discriminating against low-income folks.”

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Posted in Alaska Alcohol News, Alcohol Sales | Tags: alcohol sales, hard liquor, preventing intoxication | Comments Closed

Man who had taken dance drug died after downing a PINT of vodka in just 4 seconds

October 4th, 2010 | Author:

Source: Daily Mail

Date: September 29, 2010

A drinker who had taken the dance drug mephedrone died after downing a pint of vodka in four seconds, an inquest heard. Richard Davies swallowed the spirits in one go, despite attempts to stop him. The 29-year-old had been drinking with friends before the alcohol – the equivalent of 13 pints of lager – knocked him into a stupor. He was found unconscious and not breathing in a pool of his own blood, and died hours later.

Teesside Coroner’s Court heard how the electrician’s mate, of Thornaby, near Stockton-on-Tees, was five-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit. His body also contained traces of the then-legal high mephedrone, which has since been banned. Mr Davies’ best friend Christopher Crooks told the inquest yesterday how he desperately tried to save his life after he was found unconscious. In a statement read out by deputy Teesside coroner Tony Eastwood, he said: ‘Richard drank a pint of vodka in four seconds or so. ‘I did try to take the glass off him, but he turned his back on me, pushed me away, and drank it all.’ Mr Crooks had taken Mr Davies to his stepfather John Brocklesby’s home, in Cobden Street, to sleep off the alcohol.

He made desperate attempts to save his friend when he stopped breathing but by the time paramedics had arrived Mr Davies was dead. Pathologist Jan Lowe said Mr Davies had an alcohol level of 458mg in 100ml of blood, enough to have caused acute alcohol poisoning.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, Mr Eastwood said the alcohol in his system had killed him and that the mephedrone was not a contributing factor.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: alcohol, alcohol poisoning, hard liquor | Comments Closed

Initiatives to Change Washington’s alcohol sales

June 30th, 2010 | Author:
Two initiatives have been proposed and would serve to do away with the state’s monopoly on the sale of hard alcohol. Costco has donated more than 500,000 to the I-1100 initiative as it will profit immensely if the initiative passes. I-1105 is backed by Washington Citizens for Liquor Reforms, though neither of the two contributors toward I-1105 is an in-state LLC.
Both of these initiatives will not only change where alcohol is sold, but also the way that taxes on alcohol are collected. I-1105 directs that the current liquor taxes be ended and reinstituted once the liquor control board and the legislature create a tax system to match the new liquor-vendor situation. If two-thirds of a legislative majority cannot be found then to reinstitute alcohol taxes than the state may potentially lose out on liquor sales and tax revenues.

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Posted in Washington Alcohol News | Tags: alcohol sales, ballot, Costco, hard liquor, I-1100, I-1105, liquor sales, Washington | Comments Closed

Could Costco have their signatures?

June 29th, 2010 | Author:
Costco’s signature gathering tables for Initiative 1100 have been removed. The absence of the tables infers that the conclusion that they have already collected the amount of signatures need to place the initiative on the ballot. The initiative is one of two liquor-store privation campaigns that are working to be placed on November’s ballot. Costco is 1100’s biggest support by donating about $457,000 in cash and in indirect support to the campaign. If the initiative passes Costco and other stores which hold beer and wine licenses would be able to sell hard-liquor to consumers.

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Posted in Washington Alcohol News | Tags: alcohol sales, ballot, Costco, hard liquor, I-1100, initiative, licenses, Washington | Comments Closed
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