single beer ban
04 Sep 2008Erica Gilmore is pushing a single-beer ban in the council.
I have already discussed some misconceptions about alcoholism, so I won’t re-hash those, but it’s quite relevant to how this proposed ban is misguided at best. Gilmore supposes that banning single-beer purchases will result in some sort of litter-free utopia. (You know, like .. Denver..) What it will likely yield instead is:
- Alcoholics pooling their money together to buy six-packs instead, and likely an increase in violent crime related to fighting over money or purchases.
- An increase in purchases of alternate sources of alcohol, leading to worse health (possible death), and littered empty mouthwash bottles instead of beer bottles. Oh, and nice pools of red/green/blue-tinged vomit on our sidewalks.
For a more practical and creative approach to dealing with urban alcoholism, consider things like the managed alcohol project.
It amazes me that some people are more worried about property values than their fellow human being. They should give the managed alcohol project a shot, but you know how the public perceives these kinds of things. They’ll never go for it, if it has to have their precious tax money. God forbid we actually help these people.