August 08, 2003
Early beer sales to aid Bucs fans, rich white folks catch a buzz, and more!
The Tampa City Council is considering allowing early liquor sales on Sundays. This is a good thing, as government has no business enacting and enforcing laws based on religious convictions. But why is the proposal only allowing sales after 11:00? Why not earlier? Apparently, the reasoning is that 11AM sales will allow Bucs fans to more easily stock up for their pre-game tailgate parties. It must be a real hardship to have to plan ahead and go the liquor store the night before a big game.
Beer, wine and liquor would go on sale at 11 a.m. instead of 1 p.m., according to a proposal to change Tampa's decades-old ``blue laws'' - designed to restrict drinking on days once reserved for church.
...
Economic reasons outweighed religious concerns, said Councilwoman Rose Ferlita, who said she has been called a sinner - ``and it got worse from there'' - for advocating the change.
``This is simply a good business avenue in a tourist- driven economy,'' Ferlita said.
In addition to letting tailgaters buy booze before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' usual kickoff time, the change allows restaurants to offer cocktails to the Sunday brunch crowd.
Note to Rose Ferlita: religious concerns should not ever be used as the deciding factor for an ordinance. Don’t try to legislate morality, and keep your damn laws off of my body.
Funny thing about laws like this is that the people who write them don’t have to live by them. Go to any country club on a Sunday morning, and you’ll find rich white self-described Christians chugging mimosa’s and screwdrivers as a cure for their Saturday night hangovers. They can get away with this behavior because they have the economic means to form and operate a private club. The club gives away the booze for “free” (even though the members collectively pay for it through dues), thus circumventing the letter of the law.
If you’re poor, maybe your local pub can do the same thing? Not likely. Although a bar can literally give away booze any time, as soon as they charge a cover, it becomes a sale. So, dues paid to a club do not constitute a sale, but a cover charge does. That means that if you’re poor your best bet is to find a Catholic church and take a few shots of communion wine.
In the meantime, back at The Club, our rich white Christians are mixing alcohol and pills. That’s ok, though, because these are prescription meds, not drugs. See, these are good people. They don’t live in duplexes , and they get their mind altering substances only through AMA and FDA approved channels. They settle in to a nice mellow buzz, and begin to discuss the plague of drug use and crime that they hear is inundating our community.
What they fail to grasp is that drug use, by itself, is a completely victimless “crime”. It hurts no one but the user. So, if we stop designating drug users as criminals, crime drops immediately. Once drug use is legal, addicts will be much less likely to resort to real crime to feed their habits. (How often do we hear of someone breaking into a house to feed his alcohol habit?) Also, through drug taxes, we can fund rehabilitation programs and make them easily accessible to folks from all income levels.
Gads of money will be saved by not locking up non-violent pot smokers. Remember: we are currently incarcerating 2.1 million people in this country. Most are in for non-violent drug related offenses. No other so-called civilized country has ever had a higher percentage of its population in jail. And we call ourselves free?
Read this quote about a poor neighborhood carefully:
According to Tampa Police Department crime statistics, 28 percent of the city's reported drug crimes in 2002 took place in the area. Residents trace the problem to a proliferation of low-rent duplexes over the past several decades.
Now, council members have started the legal process to rezone the area bordered by Florida Avenue, 15th Street, Busch Boulevard and Fowler Avenue to prohibit construction of duplexes. Existing duplexes would be allowed to remain unless they are vacant for six months. In such cases, the owner would have to convert the building to a single-family home.
So, 28 percent of reported drug crimes take place there? All that means is that drugs are being used openly by people who have no where to go and use their drugs in private. They don’t have a country club to go to. (Is anyone reporting to the police the trading and abusing of prescription meds there?) They don’t have a house or an apartment to go to. Rezoning will undoubtedly “solve” the problem by pushing it to another neighborhood, but as long as we allow homelessness and poverty to flourish in our communities, these problems are not going to be solved. Hmmm... maybe we could use drug taxes for rehab and housing and education and healthcare... nah... makes too much sense...
Links:
Decriminalize drug use.
Release non-violent drug “criminals” from prison.
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