Your State's (Ridiculous Or Not) Alcohol Laws.

Oh Yeah FriedClam,
 
I worked in Waltham, Ma.  on and off for about four years.  On rain days I would head north to NH and load up the trunk.  Then I usually headed to Kittery and loaded up on Fried Clams

You have to love the state liquor stores in NH on
I95 north and southbound just north of the Mass state line.

In NJ there are 3 main types of liquor licenses on premise only, on premise with the ability to sell package goods, and off permise only. All 3 apply to beer, wine, and hard liquor and are decided by the towns. Unless a town decides to create more you essentially have to buy a business to get one or buy one from a closed business and transfer it. I also don't think there's a last call in Atlantic City.

Dave

Interesting stuff happening on the 3.2 beer front:
 http://blogs.pitch.com/fatcity/2009/01/there_are_currently_five_state.php
 
Kansas and 3.2 percent beer: a slightly buzzed history By Owen Morris in History
Tuesday, Jan. 27 2009 @ 12:32PM
Currently, five states have 3.2 beer: Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and Kansas. While Utah loves its weak brine, Colorado is close to eliminating the stuff and Kansas may soon follow. The house will vote on a bill to raise the definition of a cereal malt beverage from a weak-ass 3.2 percent to a manly four percent as defined by this bill. (Warning! PDF and boring legalese.) 

If the bill doesn't pass it will have nothing to do with temperance or the evils of alcohol but with money, because there's no reason for 3.2 percent beer to exist anymore.

So why did Kansas serve it in the first place -- and why does it still? Let's take a trip down memory lane.






1933: Months before Prohibition ends, the Volstead act is amended to make 3.2 percent beer legal in what is known as the Blaine Act. In November of this year Prohibition officially ends.

1934: Ain't no party like a Kansas party! Kansas celebrates the end of Prohibition by voting to stay a dry state.

1937: The Kansas legislature allows the sale of 3.2 percent beer, saying it's not an "intoxicating liquor" but a cereal malt beverage (CMB). Drinking age is set at 18, like it was ever enforced back then anyway.

1948: Kansans come to their senses and become the third-to-last state to repeal its dry status. Out of this the legislation passes the Liquor Control Act, which still exists. The legal drinking age for liquor (anything not a CMB) is 21; CMB age stays at 18.

1950s through the 1960s: Lots of fighting back and forth about clubs and saloons but not much about CMBs. Proms continue to be a lot more fun than they are today.

1970: The State Supreme Court rules you can buy normal-strength beer cold, eliminating the last reason for someone 21 or older to purchase a cold CMB over a warm regular six-pack.

1985: High school shenanigans forever suffer. To receive federal highway money, Kansas votes to raise the legal age for purchase of CMBs to 21. With the main audience for 3.2 percent beer now totally gone, the state should have done away with the CMB law.

1987: In an effort to make CMBs relevent, Kansas legislation says establishments can sell CMBs on Sunday. 

Since 1987, the main changes in the law surrounding CMBs have been involved lumping underage CMB drinkers with underage liquor drinkers (2001) and other conviction-type laws. The real reason CMBs exist is because Kansas liquor stores do not want to give up their sales to grocery stores. Chances are, if you're at a grocery store in Kansas, there's a liquor store within walking distance. If the CMB law changes, those liquor stores could be in a world of hurt.

Information from the very entertaining History of Alcoholic Beverages in Kansas Web Site hosted by the Kansas Department of Revenue.

When I went to school in CT (UCONN '98-'02) you could not purchase after 8pm and on Sundays.  It was a pain when all you wanted to do on Sunday was drink beer and watch football.

I don't know when this started, but I picked up 3 cases at a beer distributor in PA awhile back and was asked for my name and address.  I am 43 years of age.  I politely said I was not going to provide that information.  I was then told that if you buy more than 2 cases, the state requires that information.  I should have turned around and walked out, but instead I gave them a name and an address.  Strangely, I did not have to provide any ID so I could have said I was Ben Dover from 1313 Mockingbird Lane and the guy would have scratched it down and off I go with my beer.  Now, this whole charade strikes me as stone dumb. 

Some weeks later, my father (age 70) and I took a roadie to a town about 40 minutes away with a rock-bottom price distributor to stock up.  Pop buys 4 cases and they pull the same thing on him, name and address...He wasn't hip to this rule either, and I never told him.  He's incredulous.  I'm laughing, doubled over.  Finally I said "Just give it to them and let's go."  The distributors, one can tell, think this is as stupid as I think it is, but they have to protect themselves.  My question is, what earthly purpose does this serve?  Are they looking for a list of names to blame if some kid runs into a tree?  Who knows, but few sane people are going to card me and I'm never giving them a legit name and address.  My little resistance against "the man."

How can  you and pops go to the Distributor? Are you a retailer, or is this a different concept than most states?

mland520


Metroplex Jim- you can purchase the hard stuff in Richardson- a little town named Buckingham was recently absorbed ( for want of a better word) into the city of Richardson- Buckingham's claim to fame, you might ask?- why they had only 7 families living there but they had 5 liquor stores- so they were all "grandfathered" into the city of Richardson- weird!

 
I knew about the little cluster of stores there, but never knew "the story" of Buckingham.
 
A few years back the town of Anna - 10 miles north of McKinney - voted in spirit sales, but the stores there now have a monopoly on sales to Collin County bars & restaurants and must not care about their retail business as they charge $2 more for most 1.5L bottles,  So, it still pays for us to shop on Inwood Rd. which we find ourselves near weekly either for shopping or dining.

bill voss


How can  you and pops go to the Distributor? Are you a retailer, or is this a different concept than most states?

No, in PA you can only buy cases and kegs at distributors.  You can't buy beer in grocery stores as a rule but in some areas that's changing.  You can get six-packs at bars or bottle shops but cases are most economical for us, as neither has a keg system.  By the way, they also take down your info at a distributor if you purchase a keg.

Michael Hoffman


The laws in Connecticut were pretty weird, until you remember that Connecticut was a Blue-Law haven for many years.
 

luckily I live in Norwalk, a mere 10-minute drive from Vista, NY, where I can buy beer/wine/liquor after 9 PM, and on Sundays.  They do sell cigs, soda and mixers these days in CT "packys," but nothing else (besides ice)

Ive been told that the reasons these laws are still in effect are to protect the owners of small liquor stores, which otherwise would go out of business if hours were expanded.  When they pushed the closing time back to 9 PM from 8PM a few years ago, the proprator of the store I patronize told me "the person who used to come in at 7:55 now comes in at 8:55, but no real increase in business"

vegas

Michael Hoffman


The laws in Connecticut were pretty weird, until you remember that Connecticut was a Blue-Law haven for many years.

When I was a kid we used to drive down to the City from New Haven because you could drink at 18, and everybody borrowed their brothers' draft cards (or used phoneys) in case they were asked for ID. Me, I drank at home with my parents so never felt the need to go out to get drunk. I was a designated driver before there were designated drivers.
 
And no, TJ, we drove down in cars, not carriages pulled by horses.

luckily I live in Norwalk, a mere 10-minute drive from Vista, NY, where I can buy beer/wine/liquor after 9 PM, and on Sundays

DPuro329

You have to love the state liquor stores in NH on
I95 north and southbound just north of the Mass state line.

We've got something like that along the Mason-Dixon Line.  You'll frequently find a liquor store close to the state line on the Maryland side, where the liquor laws aren't as strict.
 
But the fireworks laws are more lenient in Pennsylvania than they are in Maryland, and now there's a fireworks store about a mile north of the Mason-Dixon Line on U.S. Route 15.  I figure that's Pennsylvania's way of getting even for all those state-line liquor stores in Maryland.

boyardee65


  Wet for sure! The bars here in Alaska can be open for 23 hours per day but must close at 5:00am for one hour. They don't have to kick anyone out but can't serve alcohol for that hour. Most bars have a cook on to handle the inevitable morning munchies from too much party the night before.
Liquor stores are open 7 days per week from 8:00 till 11:00pm or midnight. The only dry areas here are at the fish camps and the oil rigs, as far as I know.

Drenched, David O. in The Last Frontier, Wasilla, AK

but if i remember right, you could order drinks before 5am and have them on your table and still drink. this was the 80's when i lived there and things were pretty fuzzy back then. lol

Grillnut, The fireworks laws are just as bad as the liquor laws.
 
As a Pa. resident you can go into the fireworks store and only buy stuff like sparklers.  Out of state residents can buy anything they want.  That is why all the stores are near the borders.

Same thing here in DC. DC stores close at 10pm, while MD liquor stores are open 'til 11pm or midnight. Although, somewhere along the line, someone decided it was tax evasion and you can actually get arrested by a DC cop, if you're a DC resident, buy liquor in MD and bring it back into Dc for consumption. I've heard of a few instances where arrests were made. I Loves My Taxation Without Representation!

CCinNJ


Oh...a surprise 40th BD party for a classy friend?
 
Cool! I will bring the ice, and plastic cups!!
 
I pretend to be surprised!
 
Lock up the good stuff! Are wine auctions allowed on Ebay?
 
Oh...just to be on topic. Bars close at 3 am (latest) in NJ. Bars close (latest) at 4 am in NY. Can open back up at 5 am in NJ.
 
It may not be a "big" issue for many of the communities of NY/NJ, that are not right up against the border. However a universal agreement amongst these states (or any  bordering states) means nobody has it in their mind to speed over a bridge, to catch an extra hour of bar time. 

 
When I was 18(wow that was a long time ago)I would spend every weekend at the Jersey shore.  Pa. drinking age was 21.  I could have applied for residency.
 
I wonder if I ever ran into CC or Ellen at the shore?
40 Huh?  You seem to be taking it well.

Grillnut

DPuro329

You have to love the state liquor stores in NH on
I95 north and southbound just north of the Mass state line.

We've got something like that along the Mason-Dixon Line.  You'll frequently find a liquor store close to the state line on the Maryland side, where the liquor laws aren't as strict.
 
But the fireworks laws are more lenient in Pennsylvania than they are in Maryland, and now there's a fireworks store about a mile north of the Mason-Dixon Line on U.S. Route 15.  I figure that's Pennsylvania's way of getting even for all those state-line liquor stores in Maryland.

LOL.I can't resist this one............so you mean we PA residents can't get "bombed" on both sides of the Line! At least as the MD folk can! 

Visitors from states with state-run package stores always seem to marvel at the availability of booze, beer and wine in all the supermarkets here in Calif. And if the market is a 24hr market, I suppose the booze is for sale 24 hours a day, although I can't speak from the experience of looking for a bottle at 3am.

bill voss


How can  you and pops go to the Distributor? Are you a retailer, or is this a different concept than most states?

In PA, the retail beer outlets are called "Distributors". In effect, they are beer retail stores selling to the public since you can't buy beer in convenience stores, supermarkets etc. The Company's like Budweiser have a different class of distributors who sell to the Retail Distributors as well as Bars, Restaurants and other places where the beer is consumed on the premises.

joerogo


Grillnut, The fireworks laws are just as bad as the liquor laws.
 
As a Pa. resident you can go into the fireworks store and only buy stuff like sparklers.  Out of state residents can buy anything they want.  That is why all the stores are near the borders.

I live 15 miles from the 'tri-state' point where NJ, PA and NY meet at Port Jervis, NY. Its funny the amount of border crossing that goes on there - people from NY and PA going into the 5 gas stations that are crowded by the border in NJ for 'cheaper' gas (about 20-25 cents/gal cheaper), people from NJ and NY going into PA for fireworks (two stores right by the 1st exit on I-84 in PA), and people from PA going into NJ and NY for beer and booze (Pt Jervis, a town of about 7,000 people, has one gas staton that somehow survives, but has 4 or 5 liquor stores! ).

And speaking of antiquated laws, NJ might be the only state in the Union that STILL bars self-serve gas....

bill voss


1933: Months before Prohibition ends, the Volstead act is amended to make 3.2 percent beer legal in what is known as the Blaine Act. In November of this year Prohibition officially ends.

 
It was the Cullen-Harrison Act  that "created" 3.2 beer, when it re-defined "intoxicating beverage" and amended the Volstead Act to allow legal beer in April, 1933- months before the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th when it became law in December, 1933.
 
The 3.2 percent was by weight, not by volume (as most beer is measured these days, where legal) so that the "weak" beer or "half strength" or, I've even heard is incorrectly called "near beer" (that's a "cereal beverage"- under 0.5%) that was long a thing of ridicule is equal to a 4.0% ABV beer-  not really all that much weaker than 4 of the 5 most popular beers in the US- Bud Light (4.2 ABV) Miller Lite (4.2 ABV), Coors Light (4.15 ABV) and Natural Light (4.2 ABV).

ConeyIslandLou



And speaking of antiquated laws, NJ might be the only state in the Union that STILL bars self-serve gas....

Oregon still does, last I knew.

joerogo

CCinNJ


Oh...a surprise 40th BD party for a classy friend?
 
Cool! I will bring the ice, and plastic cups!!
 
I pretend to be surprised!
 
Lock up the good stuff! Are wine auctions allowed on Ebay?
 
Oh...just to be on topic. Bars close at 3 am (latest) in NJ. Bars close (latest) at 4 am in NY. Can open back up at 5 am in NJ.
 
It may not be a "big" issue for many of the communities of NY/NJ, that are not right up against the border. However a universal agreement amongst these states (or any  bordering states) means nobody has it in their mind to speed over a bridge, to catch an extra hour of bar time. 

 
When I was 18(wow that was a long time ago)I would spend every weekend at the Jersey shore.  Pa. drinking age was 21.  I could have applied for residency.
 
I wonder if I ever ran into CC or Ellen at the shore?
40 Huh?  You seem to be taking it well.

Maybe, but I was most likely building a beautiful sand castle, ready and waiting for Homes and Castles to come do a photo shoot. Then, some nice guy tries to help with the windows. He may have had a few too many, because he knocked the whole thing down!!! Was that you, Joe Rogo????
 
At the Seneca Niagra Casino, in Buffalo NY they have a policy. Proof anyone who looks like they anywhere near the legal age zone. I was walking through the casino (three years ago) and a security guard, asks for me to follow him. Tell me where we are going, if you want me to go, anywhere. To the front of the casino. Ok. He needs to see my ID. Why? It is policy? ID for everyone? No. Who? Please let me see it. Well, I did not have my NJ drivers license, with me. I was not driving, and it was in another wallet. Here is mY NJ ABC license. No. Sorry. Why? It is policy to proof anyone who looks under a certain age. I was 36, at the time. Are you kidding?? Here is my a picture of my sons? Do I look like I could possibly be 21? Birth Certificate? Nope. Need the NJ Drivers license. After an hour of me debating all sorts of things, I went back to the hotel, for the license.  It was interesting because I learned plenty in regard to the agreement between NYS and the Seneca Nation. Well worth the lost time, on the floor.
 
So, I take 40 "well" because I guess I wear 39 well, and it is always an adventure.
THANK GOODNESS for the antiquated full-service policy at gas stations, in NJ. Gas is cheap enough here, and nobody gets "hurt" with me around a pump, trying to negotiate the procedure, myself.

CC, It just dawned on me, you were 8 years old.  Holy Crap!
 
BTW, I was never liquored up while the sun was still shining.

The laws in Maryland are mostly about serving the interests of the liquor distributors and store owners.  Beer and wine is pretty much only available from liquor stores or bars with a package license.  There might be a handful of old convenience store that are grandfathered in to sell beer, but unlike most other states Maryland doesn't allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine. We also don’t permit mail order wine or beer sales.  Now, the state will spew forth some nonsense about controlling alcohol for kids. Yes, many kids are joining wine of the month clubs to get their buzz on or slipping in a few six packs of beer in between a pound of chuck and a bunch of bananas at the food mart.  What it is really about is protecting the turf of the state's liquor establishment, which coincidently is at the forefront of donations to the state's political establishment.
 
Another odd thing I just heard the other day about our liquor stores is that they can not have live music.
 
As for Sunday sales, most of that is determined at the county level.  Oddly, some of the more conservative counties allow Sunday sales, while Baltimore City only allows it during the holiday season.  

 

Robearjr


The laws in Maryland are mostly about serving the interests of the liquor distributors and store owners.  Beer and wine is pretty much only available from liquor stores or bars with a package license.  There might be a handful of old convenience store that are grandfathered in to sell beer, but unlike most other states Maryland doesn't allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine. We also don’t permit mail order wine or beer sales.  Now, the state will spew forth some nonsense about controlling alcohol for kids. Yes, many kids are joining wine of the month clubs to get their buzz on or slipping in a few six packs of beer in between a pound of chuck and a bunch of bananas at the food mart.  What it is really about is protecting the turf of the state's liquor establishment, which coincidently is at the forefront of donations to the state's political establishment.
 
Another odd thing I just heard the other day about our liquor stores is that they can not have live music.
 
As for Sunday sales, most of that is determined at the county level.  Oddly, some of the more conservative counties allow Sunday sales, while Baltimore City only allows it during the holiday season.  

 

so...no live music!  Next time I go down to the liquor store near the Conowingo Damn, I'm gonna tell the guy who is always whistling behind the counter to shut the HE## up!  (Not bloody likely, he outweighs me by 50 lbs and had at least 15 yrs on me!)

Former Brooklynites of a certain age (like me) remember the days when the drinking age in NY was 18 but it was 21 in NJ. On Friday and Saturday nights Staten Island was swamped with people driving over from NJ to take part.

It was at this time that I learned where Clark NJ was because I met a girl from there in a bar on Staten Island. Now I live 3 miles from Clark. Small world.

When my new wife and I first went to Texas to visit my new sister in law in the early 80's I was astonished to learn that it was permissable to drive with an open container of beer in hand. Such a beer was known as a "roadie". I tried it a couple of times just to have the experience of it, but even then (when I was almost 30 years younger and not a parent yet) I thought it was pretty stupid. I think it was finally outlawed about 20 years ago.

Well, no liquor laws apply in Conowingo, Maryland.   I've been at some bars up there a few times, and I'll see people taking their drinks with them as they walk back and forth across Route 1 to the other bar stopping only to get into a fight and/or get some lovin in the parking lot.

The drinking age in Oklahoma used to be 18 for women and 21 for men (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_v._Boren#Facts).  They changed it to 21 for everyone, shortly before I moved there.

moved to new york from ireland a few months ago and iv been touring about america a bit since and i really cant get over all these laws and restrictions!! seems crazy to me that different states have such mad variations on it...back home its pretty much the same wherever you go - offlicenses are open from around 9 in the morning til 10 at night (recent laws enforced an earlier closing time), pubs are open from around 10 til about 1 or so and most clubs open at 10 and close at half 2, though there are some (mostly in the bigger cities like dublin) than stay open til half 4 or even 6 or 7...if you miss the offlicense but are a regular in a pub they'll give ya a carry out at cost price too...im almost 20 so been drinking over there for nearly 3 years now, so frustrating to come over here and not be able to!! (iv been told i look about 14 so get id'd everywhere i go...sickening!)

oh and all the offlicenses over there are basically the same-sell wine, beer, cider, spirits and then bottles of shots and things...along with cigarettes and crisps and all...question thought, can you buy kopperberg anywhere in america?! its a sort of cider, comes in fruit flavours, 4.3%alc and its really nice...