Beer glut: The overregulation of alcohol in Michigan
At a recent Issues and Ideas Forum, we heard from Antony Davies, an associate professor of economics at Duquesne University; Jarrett Dieterle, director of commercial freedom policy at the R Street Institute; and Jim Storey, a former member of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. All three gave valuable insights into the state of alcohol regulation in Michigan.
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Dieterle traced the origin of some of the country’s more ridiculous liquor controls back to the era following Prohibition. Some examples include Indiana’s Warm Beer Law, Virginia’s law against advertising happy hour specials and Michigan’s recently repealed rule against liquor stores setting up within half a mile of each other. He noted that the alcohol industry is second only to plastics for manufacturing job growth, but it is “operating this new-age phenomenon of the craft spirits market in the context of a 70-to-80-year-old regulatory regime.”
