Patrick Emerson notes that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is considering getting rid of one its more pointless regulations: the ban on bars and restaurants advertising their happy hour specials. As Patrick notes, the ban prevents customers from getting useful information about prices and availability. It’s an archaic rule that’s long overdue for repeal.
Eventually I’d like to see the OLCC abolished altogether, but for now I’ll be happy with baby steps.
Previously:
Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg take on the Virginia ABC, one of the few state agencies that make the OLCC look good by comparison.
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The good news: Oregon may have a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot soon. The bad news: It would give the state a monopoly on cannabis sales:
[Legalization advocates] plan to put the issue on the 2010 ballot with an initiative called the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.
If they can gather 87,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, and voters then approved the initiative, the act would set up the Oregon Cannabis Control Commission. The new agency would sell pot to buyers 21 and over, with 90 percent of the profit going to the state’s general fund and 10 percent for drug treatment.
Activists last put a legalization measure on the ballot in 1986. It got just 26 percent support. But after decades fighting to legalize pot in Oregon, they believe the public has come around.
Have we learned nothing from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission? If we do this, it will take us forever to get new, artisinal brands of pot on the market, “coffeehouse” owners will lose money for months while they wait for licenses, and all the coolest cafes will open in California.
Here’s my idea for a compromise measure: Attach a rider eliminating the OLCC, transferring all its employees to the OCCC. Pot smokers are more relaxed than drinkers anyway, making them much better equipped to deal with lazy agency bureaucrats.
For a glimpse of what happens when the government is the sole distributor of a good, be sure to check out Doug’s write-up of the current state of liquor sales in Washington state. It’s hard to find stories that make the OLCC look good in comparison, but this is one of them.
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The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has started publishing an amusing blog. Many of the posts consists of the author explaining how, contrary to popular opinion, the OLCC is not actually a totally archaic government agency that taxes bartenders for the right to work and annoys everyone with their petty regulations. For example:
Did you know that you can special order virtually any item that is not normally carried in the OLCC’s product line? As long as it is available from a source in the U.S., we can probably get it.
Oh, that’s nice. How do I place an order?
You can go to any liquor store to place your special order. The store will write up your request, and submit it to the OLCC for processing. Your order is then placed to the distillery. The distiller will ship your order to OLCC’s warehouse, where it will be transferred to the liquor store. The liquor store will notify you when your items arrive. Special orders generally take about six to eight weeks.
Six to eight weeks? Wow, that’s really fast! OK, anything else I should know?
One thing to note - you must buy this item by the case. This is necessary since suppliers will not ship in less than whole case quantities.
Fantastic! When I’m trying out new, obscure liquors, I need at least a dozen bottles to give them a fair assessment.
(As a point of contrast, my DC liquor store would deliver special orders in less than two weeks, set a bottle aside for me, and put the rest of the case on sale to the public. Even direct mail shipments from Europe arrive in just a few days.)
[Via Things About Portland that Suck, of which the OLCC is definitely one.]
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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