Reader comments
Alcohol board may allow public to voice concerns

why don't utah just add more state liquor stores within the salt lake& ogden metro area to make it easy for people to get to. and for the flavored malt liquor beverages why don't they be more strict and card people who are buying these beverages then there wont be a problem.

�Moving them is just moving them. Kids are still going to get ahold of them." The same could said of crack cocaine, but that doesn�t mean we should make it available.

You can change the laws (in hope) but just crack down on the underage drinking if that's the major concern. Honestly though, kids will find a way to get the alchol either way this goes.

Liquor laws in Utah make people poor. We are paying for liking alcohol and just because our mormom counterparts think it is immoral to drink. Having to order a side car at a bar is rediculous. If I want a double I should be able to have one. I don't go out and drink and drive and these liquor laws don't prevent that anyway. People are still going to do that. Make it cheaper and easier for us to get a drink and if we want it stiff let me just throw the bar tender a bone in order to get it. I work hard and on the weekends I like to unwind. I shouldn't have to throw away my paycheck in order to do it. Lower the taxes on alcohol and increase the taxes on cigarettes.

Until Utah gets serious about prosecuting adults who buy alcohol from their stores and give it to minors we will continue to see more and more teenagers getting intoxicated and killing people on the road or killing themselves by alcohol poisoning. This is an area of the law where law enforcement needs to get tough, but you never hear a politician talk about it. Is it because adults in Utah feel it is ok to serve alcohol to minors?

Utah's laws need to be updated. Other states have the same intentions as Utah but those states use smarter and more efficient methods to accomplish their goals. It is absolutely silly that wine isn't sold in grocery stores but beer is allowed.

The private club law is the worst.

Sorry to shock some of you readers, but there are indeed people in Utah who drink alcohol--not drunks, just people who enjoy a glass of wine or two or a malt beverage with a taco supper. The laws in this state (and I've lived here all my life) are absolutely ridiculous. Taking malt beverages out of grocery stores isn't going to stop one kid from drinking who wants to. Why take the alcoholic beverages out of stores--why not just enforce the law (i.e., CHECK IDs)? If kids are getting this stuff, it's the stores' fault. Responsible drinkers shouldn't have to be penalized.

As a non-drinking mormon, I don't see why people are so afraid of alcohol. I don't drink it and I don't want to. Keep a bottle of liqour next to my table if you want. I don't care. Are people afraid they might order one if they can see the booze? or if they remove the glas partition they will go crazy and just grab a bottle?

I should not be forced to drive further to by alcohol because parents can not teach their kids!

Other states sell hard liquor and wine at grocery stores and they seem to be just fine. Here in Utah where those types of beverages are limited to state liquor stores we still have a very high level of underage drinking.

I feel this is all on the parents.

Malt beverages get moved to the liquor store. So what. When I was in high school, we all drank beer anyway. And if you wanted a bottle of Jack, or anything else stronger...you got it from your parents.

The public should be more involved in these decisions. The main reason that the State Liquor Commission wants to move the flavored malt drinks to the State Liquor Store is the high profit margins. Flavored drinks are very popular with adults that want a �mixed� drink but don�t want to go to the bother of going to the liquor store and making one themselves or having to go to a bar to and paying high prices for one. Look at the number of new ones hitting the shelves in the stores, they are taking more and more space, and the only reason the stores give more space is because of higher demand. It�s not to protect the kids, it�s just plain and simple economics.

Why is alcohol considered bad for youth and good for adults. Isn't that kind of hypocritical. "The day you turn 21 you become responsible enough to drink." That just seems stupid. I don't drink because I see all the problems it causes world wide. Anyone who doesn't see it is not looking. Abuse, car accidents, murders, large scale addictions, etc. etc. etc. What a waste! Our own mayor gets pulled over for drunk driving. That's rediculous.
People smoke pot to unwind too. So should that be ok?
Yes alcohol is in various household products, but so is msg. I doubt anyone would drink that.

I am a former Utah resident who currently lives in Arkansas. I have heard for years that Utah's liquor laws are too strong, too restrictive and that the rest of the country has better, more reasonable laws. Let me tell you something about how it is in Arkansas, and most of the South. I live in a dry county. No alcohol is sold in any stores, or restarants in the town where I live (population about 30,000). The nearest place to get alcohol is a thirty minute drive away. Most of the residents in my community (non mormons) do not want the county to sell alcohol. In addtion, the wet counties next to the one I live in lobby hard to keep this one dry. So before you complain about Utah's "strick" liqour laws realize that the rest of the country does not have more reasonable laws and that compared to the South, has more lax laws. I would strongly comment against loosening those laws if I lived in Utah.

" Coray.... asked listeners during a radio interview to call in with their concerns � and heard nothing" What radio show was this, Doug Wright? Of course you aren't going to hear anything. X96's morning show has requested MANY times for any liquor commissioner to go on air and explain some of the laws and their views and they keep saying NO. What are they afraid of, actually hearing from the people who drink?

If they want to know the silly laws: how about the private club membership, that you can't have more than one drink in front of you at a time (talk about promoting drinking, you have to pound your drink down before the waiter can give you the next one). How about the limited number of licences available, or limited amount of stores? How about the weak 3.2 beer in the stores.... the list can go on and on. Coray, if you want to hear from the people go on X96 and answer the people. Get a REAL world point of view instead of the fuzzy view behind the zion curtain.

The obvious solution is to change the laws where it is most needed, Salt Lake and Summit Counties. Leave the existing laws in place in the rest of the state. I believe that would be a win-win for all involved.

Re: keep it stone cold sober. "The same could be said about crack cocaine"

Well, crack is completely illegal and guess what? people still get it. Even if alcohol was completely illegal, people would still get it.(remember prohibition?) The laws in this state are ridiculous. Perhaps parents should be responsible for their own children instead of making the state and tax payers regulate their children's drinking, or enforce the laws at already exist. Like checking IDs. These laws here do nothing to protect underage drinking, all they do is punish the tax paying, responsible drinkers.

I'm in favor of making alcohol as difficult to get as possible. I don't care about the rights of drinkers to drink. I'm in favor of making the new downtown Salt Lake development an alcohol-free zone and would applaud making all sporting venues including the ES Arena alcohol free. Heard all the "logic," listened to the tantrums, and tried to find balance in toleration of the responsible drinkers. I believe we would be enormously better off as a community, in the well-being of families and individuals, to live without alcohol in our lives. I will gladly give up my right to drink alcohol for the benefits it would bring directly and indirectly to myself and my family.

People say these "alcopops" are being made available to children. Well, the last time I checked you still had to be 21 to buy them. I believe the "alcopop" move is a prelude to moving all alcohol out of the grocery stores. In California, if you sell to underage kids you'd lose your liquor license. Stores need to be more strict here about checking ID's and start being punished if you don't.

Tell the Liquor Commission to set up a web page where I can submit concrete suggestions and I'll be happy to do so. I'm in Cedar City and there's no way I'm going to drive to Salt Lake City to get 90 seconds speaking at a public hearing.

There are all sorts of ridiculous things that need to be addressed. The fact that St George has only ONE state liquor store that must provide wine as well as hard liquor to every restaurant with a liquor license in the southwest quarter of the state is just plain absurd. And the law that requires food to be served when someone just wants a beer is crazy - all it results in is a lot of sales of 69 cent chips and salsa that most people either don't want or don't need.

How can we be having a discussion of privatizing schools when the state runs a retail store monopoly? That makes no sense at all.