single beer ban

04 Sep 2008

Erica 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.