According to the New York Times, a bill in the State Legislature in Utah, a state famously known for being dominated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and not being fans of alcohol, may make it a requirement that at least two people on the five-member Alcohol Beverage Control Commission be drinkers.
Applicants for the two slots would have to sign an affidavit saying that they had consumed alcohol for at least a year before their appointment by the governor.
The original draft of the proposed bill, HB 193, used the phrase “regular consumers” to specify just how much the applicant has to drink. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Brian Doughty, a Democrat from Salt Lake City, said he got rid of the word “regular” in an amendment after other legislators complained that the word was hard to define.
Utah’s liquor regulations are among the strictest in the nation, with all retail stores state-owned and tight rules in bars. The Control Commission’s web site makes it clear that these rules will not change anytime soon, no matter who sits on the board.
“The purpose of control is to make liquor available to those adults who choose to drink responsibly—but not to promote the sale,” the site says. Mr. Doughty said in an interview that the language in his bill about drinking for at least a year was meant to guarantee that the commission gets a real, current perspective on how alcohol is sold and used in the state, and weed out applicants who might have had a wild, one-time occurrence a long time ago.
“I didn’t want someone to be able to say, ‘I had a glass of wine or a beer 10 years ago, and that makes me a consumer of alcohol,” he said.
