WI-137 cited at Madison bar for underage drinking

When police officers walked into a downtown Madison bar Thursday night, they asked 143 people to prove they were 21 years old. Only six of them succeeded.

With only around four percent of them being old enough to drink, that left 137 people facing underage alcohol consumption and/or false identification citations, according to numbers provided by the Madison Police Department.

And, more citations are likely, MPD added they do not usually catch this many underage drinkers in one spot.

Per Madison law, a first offense for someone younger than 21 trying to purchase alcohol at a bar could pay between $379 to $691.

“We are here to say that we are going to uphold our ordinances, laws and there are serious consequences for this kind of behavior both for the students, underage people that are engaging in it,” MPD public information officer Hunter Lisko said.

Lisko did not include the name of the bar in question. MPD explained investigators are still trying to determine its role in the number of underage people who were drinking at the time.

MPD’s Central District Police Team had teamed up with UW Police Department to conduct the operation, which MPD described as proactive enforcement of liquor laws in the downtown areas. The MPD statement noted that officers had stopped at multiple bars that night.

In addition to enforcing age limits on drinking, the “proactive enforcement” offers training to bar and taverns for how they can safely serve alcohol.

UVic scientist wants labels on alcohol to show health risks

A University of Victoria scientist involved in the overhaul of Canada’s decade-old drinking guidelines envisions a future where alcohol bottles have printed labels and QR codes that inform consumers of the health risks of drinking.

Dr. Tim Naimi is one of three scientists at UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research on an expert committee that formulated proposed new guidelines warning of the risks associated with as few as three drinks per week. He wants the guidelines to be backed up by mandatory labelling and strong public policy.

“Why is it I can easily find the amount of calcium in a can of peas, but then I buy a container of alcohol, which is a calorie-dense, potentially addictive, intoxicating carcinogen, and I have none of that information conveyed to me on the label,” said Naimi. “And when I open that can of peas, I know the serving size but not when I open a bottle of whisky.

“It’s outrageous.”

In its suggested update to Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines released this week, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction says risk is negligible-to-low for two drinks per week, moderate for three to six drinks per week and increasingly high beyond that.

The current guidelines, released in 2011, suggest limiting alcohol use to 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks a week for men.

The message is “drinking less is better for you,” said Naimi. “I think the new guidelines reflect a lot of new science that shows the risk is higher than has been previously appreciated.”

MA-State suspends Lighthouse Wine & Spirits license

The state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has suspended the license of Lighthouse Wine & Spirits for five days.

Investigators for the commission said in a report that the Beverly store sold and shipped alcoholic beverages to out-of-state customers, which is illegal in Massachusetts. The store will serve its suspension from Oct. 17 to 21.

According to a report by ABCC investigators, the commission received information in January 2020 that Lynnway Liquor Mart in Lynn was delivering alcoholic beverages outside of Massachusetts. Lynnway Liquor Mart is owned by Ansara and his family.

When investigators inspected Lynnway Liquor Mart, the manager and clerk on duty admitted to selling alcohol across state lines, according to the report. Investigators then found documents indicating that Lighthouse Wine & Spirits in Beverly was also selling and shipping alcohol to out-of-state customers.

The clerk at Lynnway Liquor told investigators that Lighthouse had a website where consumers could open an account to order alcohol online and have it delivered to them. The website said Lighthouse would ship by UPS or Federal Express to any state, except South Dakota.

Investigators said numerous documents confirmed that Lighthouse had sold and shipped alcohol out of state between Jan. 16 and Jan. 24, 2020, and Ansara admitted to doing so.

PA-You may soon be able to buy a beer at Penn State football games

The Nittany Lions' football season is underway. And while spirits are high in State College, they may get even higher.

The board of trustees at Pennsylvania State University is likely to vote later this month on a proposal to begin selling beer to the general public at home football games in Beaver Stadium, which can hold more than 100,000 fans. Alcohol currently is only available in suites and the club section.

The move comes as the athletic department, led by new director Pat Kraft, looks to improve the game-day fan experience and raise revenue for, among other things, renovations to athletic facilities. It follows a hiring freeze put in place by the university last month as it faces a $191 million deficit, which the school said resulted in part from inflation, pandemic-related enrollment, and revenue strain and tuition freezes.

If approved, Penn State would join a prominent group: More than half the universities in the Big Ten Conference, including Rutgers, already sell beer and, in some cases, wine, to the general public at their games. Most recently, the University of Iowa, which started selling the potables at its athletic facilities in 2021, got more than $1.1 million in commissions, according to a report from the school. Alcohol also is sold at Lincoln Financial Field during Temple University football games.

Point of Last Drink aims to intervene with establishments that overserve

Minnesota is part of a nationwide effort to track where people receive alcoholic beverages prior to incidents involving law enforcement.

Researchers at the Minnesota Department of Health recently quantified the harm of alcohol use in the state at $8 billion in 2019. That's according to data published earlier this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study placed a dollar figure on the portion of societal costs imposed by alcohol ranging from health care, to lost productivity, crime, and motor vehicle crashes. In announcing that finding state health officials highlighted a data collection intervention in Minnesota known as Place of Last Drink , or POLD.

The POLD program was launched under a grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services in 2014 with the goal of tracking not just incidents of driving under the influence, but all manner of alcohol-related interactions with law enforcement including assaults, domestic violence and property crimes.

It does so by partnering with 19 community law enforcement entities who have agreed to gather information from individuals in custody about where they received their last serving of alcohol prior to an incident.

The goal is to identify establishments which may not recognize they served persons who were subsequently involved with alcohol related incidents, says Dr. Traci Toomey, a professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Minnesota.

Drag Racing Rising Across U.S. Amid Increasing Traffic-Related Deaths

Dozens of people near downtown Chicago were seen on video throwing bricks, bottles and other objects at police. It followed two straight nights and several weekends of drag racing and what police have called "street takeovers," marked by crowds watching reckless driving stunts.

"Just because we didn't arrest you or tow your car, we have video of you... and we'll prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," said Superintendent David Brown with the Chicago Police Department.

Dozens of videos popped up on social media over the weekend showing hundreds of cars blocking intersections and doing donuts on city streets overnight. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot partly blames the proliferation of these events on social media.  

"I think the lack of responsibility from social media companies who absolutely know the kind of things being posted, their failure to be proactive in addressing these issues, to work proactively with law enforcement, is an absolute abomination," Lightfoot said.

The videos showing large stunt driving meetups online are not unique to Chicago.

Across the country from San Diego, California to Detroit, Michigan, police have faced off with large crowds and cars racing or stunt driving on city streets.

All of this comes as traffic-related fatalities are on the rise nationwide.

KS-Lawrence Police Department and KU PSO resume underage drinking taskforce

A Lawrence Police Department task force resumes their fight to combat underage drinking after a two-year hiatus.

Lawrence residents and KU students may have noticed an increase in law enforcement at local bars. This is due to the partnership between Lawrence Police Department (LPAID), KU Public Safety Office (PSO) and Alcohol Beverage Control, a task force created to educate and enforce the public on statutes and ordinances involving alcohol.

The task force, created in 2010, is fully grant-funded and is made-up of a handful of law enforcement officers from LPD, KU PSO and Alcoholic Beverage Control. The task force had a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Lt. Ryan Halsted, patrol officer for LPD and LPD’s lead officer in the task force, understands that alcohol plays a large role in criminal activity around Lawrence.

“Alcohol has long been a proven driver that leads to criminal behavior. More importantly, however, is the fact that criminal activity clearly leads to victims of crimes involving alcohol,” Halsted said. 

WV-Local distillery pushing for alcohol tax reform

If you’ve ever wondered why canned cocktails, like High Noon, are more expensive than something like White Claws, even though they are about the same ABV percentage, it all has to do with West Virginia’s excise tax on different types of alcohol.

White Claw is technically a flavored malt beverage, which puts it under the classification of other malt beverages like beer. A 5% ABV 12oz malt beverage is taxed at 1.7 cents per can.

West Virginia Alcohol Tax Rates (Courtesy DISCUS)

However, a drink that contains vodka, like High Noon, is considered a spirit and is taxed the same way a bottle of Jack Daniels would be, despite containing far less alcohol. A 5% ABV 12oz canned cocktail is taxed at 20.2 cents per can, 11 times more than a canned malt beverage, despite having the same alcoholic content.

This is causing one local distillery to get involved in the West Virginia tax reform process, to bring the tax on canned cocktails in line with similarly alcoholic drinks. Swilled Dog is a cidery and distillery in Pendleton County, and is a member of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a national trade association that represents the makers and marketers of distilled spirits sold in the United States (DISCUS).

$2.9 million fine for supplier who was part of largest criminal operation involving duty unpaid alcohol

SINGAPORE - When an alcohol supplier heard that others in the trade were siphoning off duty unpaid liquor to sell illegally, he struck a deal with them to sell his stock.

For a fee, the syndicate helped Ng Yin Hon to cover up the sale of duty unpaid alcohol to his customers, evading some $500,000 in taxes.

Ng, 35, was part of the largest and longest-running syndicated operation involving duty unpaid alcohol uncovered in Singapore, the court heard.

The total amount of taxes evaded amounted to some $25 million.

On Wednesday, Ng pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was fined $2.9 million.

He will be jailed for 40 months if he does not pay the fine by Oct 24.

Addressing cannabis-impaired driving: International researchers join forces to help inform policy and legislation globally

The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs & Traffic Safety (ICADTS) has released new tools summarizing the latest research about cannabis-impaired driving to help inform policymakers across countries. This series of fact sheets were developed in consultation with leading impaired driving researchers from 11 countries representing ICADTS Drugged Driving Work Group.

Co-chaired by Maastricht University (Netherlands), the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF/Canada) and Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), this work group aimed to answer top questions commonly raised by policymakers around the globe. This fact sheet series interprets critical research findings regarding several facets of the problem and their implications for policy and legislation. The purpose is to clarify important research findings to help ensure the development and implementation of cannabis-impaired driving policy and legislation are appropriate and informed by science.

As of 2022, many countries have legalized recreational and/or medical cannabis use including Canada, Georgia, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, and Uruguay. In the United States, cannabis is legal in 19 states, 2 territories, and the District of Columbia. Many more jurisdictions, such as Germany, are contemplating such a move and this global trend is likely to continue.

“Unlike alcohol, the research regarding the impairing effects of Δ9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the active ingredient of cannabis) on driving is much more complex because cannabis does not have a clear concentration-effect response,” shares Jan Ramaekers, Professor, Maastricht University and former ICADTS president. “This means it’s difficult to conclude whether a specific THC concentration is indicative of driving impairment in an individual, making policy decisions much more complex.”

International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day is Observed on September 9

Prenatal alcohol exposure is a leading preventable cause of birth defects and neurodevelopmental abnormalities in the United States. On September 9 each year, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) recognizes International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day as a reminder that there is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy.

FASD refers to an array of lifelong physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. These can range from mild to severe and contribute to a variety of issues such as learning disabilities, speech and language delays, visual and hearing problems, problems with vital organs, and social challenges throughout a person's life.

FASD is preventable. As the ninth day of the ninth month of the year approaches, please join NIAAA in spreading the word about the importance of avoiding prenatal alcohol exposure.

Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health. Visit www.niaaa.nih.gov.