The Washington Legislature has passed a worthy piece of legislation that will allow grocery stores to have wine and beer tastings in their stores, something outlawed now despite the large position this state has in producing world-class wines and trend-setting beers.
The bill, which has passed the Senate, will allow the Washington State Liquor Control Board to administer a pilot project to allow 30 grocery stores to hold up to six wine or beer tastings a year, and only one each month.
We think this is a good idea, and are glad the measure passed. One of the arguments the opponents use is that it sends the wrong message to kids and will cause intoxicated chaos with drivers leaving grocery stores swacked. The people are going to get a swallow or two, not a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer to swill. The city will not sink into depravity over a swallow of beer or wine.
If you follow that logic to its conclusion, then all alcohol should be banned in Washington, not likely to happen.
But this newspaper would push the matter way beyond this new law.
We want to abolish the Washington Liquor Control Board altogether. We should turn the distribution and sale of liquor over to private enterprise.
The Liquor Board has a totally illogical mission: To keep people from over-imbibing and youths from buying it while at the same time pushing sales to add to the state treasury. The board is also virtually a government unto itself, often permitting loose and ineffective management that has gained the ire of state auditors many times. The cost of operation of this relic of the Prohibition era outweighs any useful purpose.
Some misguided people worry that turning the business totally over to private enterprise halt the huge flood of money into the state's general fund. That isn't the case in Alberta which did away from government control of liquor sales earlier this decade. In fact, provincial revenues have increased.
We are not suggesting stopping the taxation of alcohol, just get the state out of a business it simply does not understand. The Liquor Control Board is not filled with long-experienced managers of beer, wine and hard liquor distribution, but usually political friends of the governor.
We should continue state regulation of liquor, but alcohol is a business like any others. We have many state laws to control drunk driving, and sales to minors.
The state monopoly is a thing of the past and the sooner we get rid of this outdated system, the better we will be.
- Jack Mayne
