Beer pressure
In Oklahoma, we have a beer-like substance designated “3.2,” and we have beer. If you go to the grocery store, you can buy the former from a refrigerated case; if you go to the liquor store, you can buy the latter, nice and warm.
If you don’t live here, let me tell you: this is even sillier than you think it is. The 3.2 stuff was originally designated as “non-intoxicating” as a ruse to get around Prohibition, a term which persisted until 1995.
Occasionally efforts are made to drag the state, if not into the 21st century, at least into the last half of the 20th, but they always seem to fail; as is often the case with regulation, there are people who benefit from it, and they’d like to keep it that way, thank you very much. This year’s effort comes from Sen. Andrew Rice (D-OKC), and in SJR 62 he’s careful to limit it to the two most populous counties (Oklahoma and Tulsa).
Whether this will spur economic development — which is to say, finally getting a full-line grocery store somewhere near downtown OKC — I can’t say. (Doc Hoc seems pretty sure it will.) But I’d like to see Rice pull this one off, just to shake up the status quo a bit.
fillyjonk »
15 February 2010 · 12:44 pm
Maybe this one’s in the “when Hell freezes over” category, along with abolition of the grocery sales tax. (“When revenues pick up” is nice and vague terms for the sunsetting on that.)
I don’t drink, but I will say anything that would get us some greater diversity of grocery stores would certainly be welcome.
Jeffro »
15 February 2010 · 8:26 pm
I’m a child of 3.2 – many a morning found me suffering from the 3.2 flu. I didn’t realize your likker stores had to sell the “six point” stuff hot – we get ours either way either content.
I’ve always heard that the 3.2 and the 6.0 come from the same vat at the brewery.
CGHill »
15 February 2010 · 10:11 pm
Andrew Rice posted on Facebook today that his bill was killed in committee, 5-4.