Alcohol regulation 101

A package of short briefs about alcohol regulation that arise during state legislative sessions or community meetings is available from the Campaign for a Healthy Alcohol Marketplace. It is designed for policy makers and others that need a short, straightforward explanation of regulatory issues.

Some of the titles are:

-- Why can’t alcohol be sold in a completely free market scenario?

-- What happened in countries that experimented with selling alcohol in a deregulated market?

-- Alcohol is a legal product, so why can’t it be sold like orange juice or any other legal product?

-- What does a good alcohol regulatory system look like?

-- Why are beer, wine and spirits regulated differently?

-- What is the problem with allowing more stores to sell alcohol?

A link to the briefs may be found under Issues Briefs on the Campaign's main web page.

Alcohol regulation 101

I came across the Campaign for a Healthy Alcohol Marketplace's website that does a good job at starting to explain why alcohol regulations are needed. Their March 2009 newsletter contains information about "What is a healthy alcohol marketplace" and "Washington State seeks to liberalize ownership".