Friday, September 19, 2008

Defending Our Right to In-Sobreity?

I found this interesting:

From Wikipedia:

Missouri has been known for its population's generally "stalwart, conservative, noncredulous" attitude toward regulatory regimes, which is one of the origins of the state's official nickname, the "Show-Me State." As a result, and combined with the fact that Missouri is one of America's leading alcohol-producing states, regulation of alcohol and tobacco in Missouri is among the most laissez-faire in America.

With a large German immigrant population and the development of a brewing industry, Missouri always has had among the most permissive alcohol laws in the United States. It never enacted statewide prohibition. Missouri voters rejected prohibition in three separate referenda in 1910, 1912, and 1918. Alcohol regulation did not begin in Missouri until 1934. Today, alcohol laws are controlled by the state government, and local jurisdictions are prohibited from going beyond those state laws. Missouri has no statewide open container law or prohibition on drinking in public, no alcohol-related blue laws, no local option, no precise locations for selling liquor by the package (thereby allowing even drug stores and gas stations to sell any kind of liquor), no differentiation of laws based on alcohol percentage, no prohibition on consumption by minors (as opposed to possession), and no prohibition on absinthe. State law protects persons from arrest or criminal penalty for public intoxication and also expressly prohibits any jurisdiction from going dry. Missouri law also expressly allows parents and guardians to serve alcohol to their children.

I didn't even know we were that lenient.

We also have no state wide ban on public smoking, and polls show that only 20% of Missourians would support one.

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