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Health & Fitness

Alcohol Sales in The Free Market - A Shining Example from the Golden State

Will Pennsylvania Finally Act to Release the Stranglehold of the Liquor Control Board?

As a lifelong Pennsylvanian, one of the most remarkable aspects of my recent trip to the Los Angeles area came when I perused drugstore circulars in the Sunday newspapers.  I thought that these advertisements might be identical to those which appear in Western Pennsylvania periodicals, but they are not because they include bargain basement sale prices for alcoholic beverages of all types: liquor, wine, and beer: one-stop shopping!  A couple of examples from the Rite-Aid circular which appeared in the Sunday, 7 April Santa Barbara News-Press are: $19.99 for 1.75 liter bottles of premium spirits and $4.00 per 750 ml bottle of mid-level, name-brand wines.

It is interesting that although California is considered to be a "nanny state" in many respects, freedom in the sale of alcohol has long existed and has not contributed to any apparent level of anarchy or disorder any greater than that which exists in the paternalistic Keystone State.  Californians obviously do not believe that a government alcohol sales agent is the only bulwark standing between civilization and chaos.

Will freedom in alcohol sales break out in Pennsylvania?  The issue is now in the hands of the Republicans that control the State Senate.  If they miss another opportunity to bring about an end of the state's Prohibition era, their GOP credentials will rightfully be called into question.

Governor Corbett said it all when he asserted that alcohol sales are not a core function of state government.

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