The Center for Alcohol Policy has released a new report, “Fake IDs in America: Challenges of Identification and the Critical Need for Training,” authored by Susan Dworak, CEO of Real Identities, LLC. The report outlines current challenges posed by fake IDs, identifies best practices for verifying identification on alcohol sales, and proactive measures policymakers, regulators and licensees can take to protect against alcohol purchases with fake IDs.

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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.

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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 10^th Annual Essay Contest. The national essay contest is intended to foster debate, analysis and examination of alcohol policy.

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On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Center for Alcohol Policy will commemorate the 84^th  anniversary of the ratification of the 21^st 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 21^st Amendment to the United States Constitution, thereby repealing the 18^th Amendment which began Prohibition in 1920.

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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.

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This Constitution Day, celebrated annually on Sept. 17, the Center for Alcohol Policy is highlighting its educational resources that explain the 21^st 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.

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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 10^th Annual Alcohol Law and Policy Conference, in Chicago, Illinois, last week.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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