Westmoreland County to “warning sticker” cases of beer and why you’re a binge drinker.
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Officials are trying to beat underage drinking with a sticker. A campaign called “sticker shock” is under way in Westmoreland County. Beer distributors are working with youth leaders to place warning stickers on cases of beer. The stickers are to remind people it is illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase beer. It is also illegal for anyone to provide alcohol to people under 21.
This has to be the most ri-goddamn-diculous thing that I’ve seen since the proposed 10% tax on alcohol poured in Allegheny County. Apparently the great minds in Westmoreland County have nothing better to spend money on than “reminders” that you have to be 21 to drink. Maybe it’s to remind the beer distributors of the law that’s been in place for decades? I’m sure that someone who’s 20 will wander into a beer store and go “goddamn! if it wasn’t for that sticker I would have committed a crime. Where’s the soda!” This is an insult to anyone with half a friggin brain. More labels for the idiots in our world.
ATLANTA — New research shows that binge drinkers are more likely to have a beer can in hand than a shot glass, but teens seem to prefer the hard stuff.
The findings are reported in two studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts suggest that access may play a major role in the choices of the two age groups. For adults, beer is cheaper and easy to find. The study of adult binge drinkers found that nearly 75 percent mainly or exclusively drank beer, 17 percent focused on liquor, and 9 percent were wine drinkers. A binge drinker was defined as someone who had five or more alcoholic drinks on at least one occasion in the last 30 days.
WHAT! I want to meet the person(or group) that came up with these standards. I have some questions that need to be answered here…
1) You can NOT even begin to compare “hard stuff” to beer. The alcohol content is significantly different and you need to drink more of it to equal a few liquor drinks. OBVIOUSLY more beer is consumed.
2) Beer is not easier to find. At least in the state of PA. there’s only one place you can buy it from. Yes beer is more accessible but also you see more home brewers and even then those are responsible drinkers.
3) The definition of binge drinker is absolute bullshit. What needs to be defined is the amount of alcohol consumed. So if I drink 6 samples of beer in 5oz glasses I’m a binge drinker and that’s the same as someone who does 5 shots? Hell, people that go out to the clubs and bars are all screwed. Personally I think this was made up as a standard for judgment by some moral police who’s trying to get a tighter grasp on alcohol consumption in this country. MADD I’m looking in your direction.
4) This debate keeps coming up and honestly I’ll fight it each time because apparently… myself and my friends are binge drinkers from these standards. In fact I think that I’ll be working this into our next podcast since we review beers we must obviously be binging.
I want to know who funded this research because quite honestly i think that this posting proves I should be seeing some of that wasted cash.
morons… all of them.
*** UPDATE 8/8/07 ***
Brookston Beer Bulletin fights back!
