AK in PDX links to this news on the OLCC taking a baby step towards privatization of the state booze cartel.
As a matter of course, the article had to feature at least one quote from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, this from Judy Cushing, president of Oregon Partnership, a "nonprofit prevention group." Like so:
"Your proposed changes . . . will make hard liquor more visible and accessible to the populations most vulnerable -- teens and problem drinkers."Shit. Let's begin with those "problem drinkers." Is any effort to make booze more or less "visible and accessible" to them going to matter? Does Cushing genuinely believe that keeping hard liquor in hard-to-find, high-priced stores with bad hours is actually deterring any "problem drinkers" from seeking it out? That if they don't walk past it in the grocery store, their cravings might just one day vanish? POOF! All gone! Why deny convenience and a fair market price to the rest of us on illusory assumptions of prevention?
Likewise the teenagers. If teenagers want booze -- really, really want it -- no amount of inconvenience is going to thwart their efforts. They will try again and again and again, using bribery, theft, chicanery, and deception, until they get their hands on it. Trust me on this.
Cushing ought to acknowledge reality: teens and problem drinkers are not those "most vulnerable" to booze; they are those "most determined" to get booze. But of course, casting it in terms other than "vulnerability" takes all the paternalism out of it. And then what fun is there left in being a moralist ninny?
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PS Wondering about the title? Well, I'm taking my Constitutional Law final tomorrow so my head's all full of haughty judicial hoo-ha.
Thank God I live in Illinois. I've been buying booze at Jewel for so long I forgot what a tough time you Oregonians have.
Posted by: phooeyhoo at April 22, 2004 9:01 AMYeah, but you folks don't have any mountains to vomit off of.
Posted by: FLOG™ at April 22, 2004 9:37 AMThe trick is to get them drunk and let them do all the puking for you. But that does take all the fun out of the process.
Posted by: Blog at April 23, 2004 3:05 AMDoes a slight bulge of concrete in my parking lot count as a mountain?
Posted by: phooeyhoo at April 23, 2004 7:29 AMWho needs mountains when you've got cornfields? And the Sears Tower?
Posted by: Blog at April 23, 2004 9:39 AMI doubt that you could puke off the Sears Tower these days without being escorted out by a bunch of blue men.
Posted by: phooeyhoo at April 23, 2004 10:53 AM