June 30, 2010
Dear Legislators,
Grocery, drug, convenience and box stores are once again pushing their agenda to allow for the sale of alcohol on Sunday and to allow them the privilege to sell cold beer. These businesses pushed this same agenda last year under the name Hoosiers for Beverage Choice, this year they are called Alliance of Responsible Alcohol Retailers.
Whatever their name, the law changes they recommend cause Drug Free Marion County great concern. Our concern is that increasing the availability of alcohol in the marketplace also increases the burden on the community. Research conducted across the nation and internationally consistently demonstrates a negative relationship to increased alcohol availability and accidents, crime, and community disintegration.
The arguments promoting consideration of these changes revolve around revenue increase, convenience to consumers, fairness in the marketplace, and ability to sell responsibly.
Attached is a fact sheet in which we address those points as well as identify the cost to the community. Retailers like to argue that they are very careful in the sale of alcohol and have excellent carding systems in place. While we appreciate the importance of these efforts, the reality is that alcohol sold legally has just as much capacity to lead to harm and injury and alcohol sold to minors. This is an issue of excessive access and availability of alcohol not just safe sale and distribution approaches.
Finally when I find our agency engaged in a battle over an issue that is being promoted by the industry, I am aware that this is not the best way to go about creating good alcohol sale and distribution policy. Too often policy makers get caught up in dealing with some specific issue and the result is a patchwork of policies and laws that may not work well together, and may not provide the best protection to Hoosiers. It is our interest to work with community members and leaders to bring about effective policies addressing alcohol and drugs.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. As always we welcome opportunities to share knowledge and resources with you and your constituents.
A little more about us: Drug Free Marion County staff has a combined work experience in the field of prevention of over thirty-five years. We are a member of the national organization Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA). Our regular publications Include: Report on Underage and Binge Drinking in Marion County, a Snapshot of Substance Abuse in Marion County, Treatment Provider Directory and the Community Plan that identifies priority issues in the areas of prevention treatment and criminal justice.
Sincerely
Randy Miller, Executive Director
That's quite a different framework than how a Kroger store currently operates in Indiana.
There is a war of words underway between retailers. Many are batting about the word "responsible" when it comes to alcohol sales. One is professing to be the champion of consumers; the other partner in Project RAD represents small Hoosier-owned businesses that were part of their communities and on neighborhood corners long before corporate chains began cannibalizing each other building newer, bigger and 24-7 stores all across the state. We interviewed one longtime lawmaker recently for an upcoming video and he put it this way: one group represents stakeholders while the other represents stockholders. Please remember this as the war of words heats up in the next few months: Use your own common sense and consumer values when it comes to expediency and alcohol. If you do, the choices ahead will not be tough ones to make when it comes to policy.