The Center for Alcohol Policy is joining organizations across the country in April to recognize Alcohol Awareness Month, a nationwide campaign that raises awareness of the problems that alcohol abuse can cause for individuals, their families and their communities.
The Center for Alcohol Policy is pleased to announce that Joseph Uhlman, a third-year law student at the University of Kansas School of Law, has been named the winner of its 10th Annual Essay Contest. The national essay contest is intended to foster debate, analysis and examination of alcohol policy.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Center for Alcohol Policy will commemorate the 84th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution. On that date in 1933, Prohibition ended in the United States when 36 states (the requisite three-fourths majority of the then 48 states) ratified the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, thereby repealing the 18th Amendment which began Prohibition in 1920.
The Center for Alcohol Policy released a new report, “Combatting Fake, Counterfeit, and Contraband Alcohol Challenges in the United Kingdom through the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS),” authored by Robert Tobiassen, the former Chief Counsel at the Treasury Department’s Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau. The report is a follow up to his 2014 report, “The ‘Fake Alcohol’ Situation in the United States: The Impact of Culture, Market Economics, and the Current Regulatory Systems,” that examined the high number of incidences of fake alcohol in countries around the world, compared to the low number of incidences in the United States.
This Constitution Day, celebrated annually on Sept. 17, the Center for Alcohol Policy is highlighting its educational resources that explain the 21st Amendment’s role in establishing America’s state-based regulatory system. The Center for Alcohol Policy video The Origins of America’s State-Based Regulatory System illustrates the origin of today’s alcohol regulatory system, which works to balance alcohol control with an orderly and competitive marketplace.
The Center for Alcohol Policy announced that Kathie Durbin, chief of licensure, regulation and education at the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Liquor Control, is the recipient of the Fifth Annual Leadership in Alcohol Regulation Award. The award, which recognizes a specific program, agency or person who oversees the alcohol industry and promotes public safety, was presented by the Center’s Advisory Council at the 10th Annual Alcohol Law and Policy Conference, in Chicago, Illinois, last week.
According to a recently released national poll commissioned by the Center for Alcohol Policy, four-in-five Americans support individual states’ ability to regulate alcohol. The poll results also show that 93% of respondents believes drunk driving problems remain an extremely or very serious problem, a number surpassing concerns about opioid abuse which has dominated the nation’s headlines recently. Binge drinking and underage drinking are seen as extremely to very serious problems, as well, at 78% and 73% respectively.
Recent news reports indicate that several tourists and families travelling to all-inclusive resorts in Mexico suspect they were given tainted alcohol, which in some cases resulted in death. The reports underscore a stark contrast between alcohol regulation in Mexico and the United States, where state-based alcohol regulation and a three-tiered system of distribution provides a clear chain of custody and guards against tainted alcohol products reaching consumers.
A report by former Chief Counsel for the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau Robert M. Tobiassen, “The ‘Fake Alcohol’ Situation in the United States: The Impact of Culture, Market Economics, and the Current Regulatory Systems,” explains why there are few incidents of fake alcohol products in the United States. The study describes “strong regulatory systems that police the production, importation, distribution and retail sales of alcohol beverages through independent parties” and the country’s “competitive marketplace that provides alcohol beverages at all price points.”
The Center for Alcohol Policy has unveiled a new video highlighting discussion and debate during the Pennsylvania Alcohol Policy Forum, held on March 22. The event, which took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, brought together more than 70 alcohol regulators, state lawmakers, legislative staff, public health representatives and industry members.
A new report released by the Center for Alcohol Policy examines the history and purpose of tied-house prohibitions found in federal and state alcohol laws and explains how these prohibitions are as relevant today as when enacted following the repeal of Prohibition.
The report, “The Dangers of Common Ownership in an Uncommon Industry: Alcohol Policy in America and the Timeless Relevance of Tied-House Restrictions,” was authored by former executive counsel for the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and alcohol law attorney Jessica C. Starns.