Coronavirus brings quick changes to state alcohol laws
“It’s definitely a step forward towards liberalizing a lot of these laws,” Jarrett Dieterle, senior fellow at R Street, a nonpartisan public policy research organization, told The Hill.
And others see it as encouraging for more uniform laws, which have varied sharply from state to state.
Dieterle said the temporary standards would remind the public of how antiquated liquor laws can be and the need for more uniformity.
“The more interconnected we get and our marketplaces get, the more people will want their state to be part of that alcohol market. You order anything on Amazon and its almost certainly coming from another state,” he said.
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“We live in this world where — I kind of call it the ‘two day get everything at your door kind of world’ or even two hours. Alcohol, depending on where you are, is a great exception to that,” Dieterle said. “I think that people were already kind of were wondering, ‘That’s really weird, why is alcohol different?’”
Not all states have eased restrictions. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has closed all liquor stores and other alcohol distributors.
“We’ve seen a lot of instances where consumers are crossing state lines out of Pennsylvania to New Jersey and other states,” Swonger said. “We would strongly encourage him to reconsider.”
“Really, to me, it seems totally not based on reality. We’ve proven throughout human history that people will find a way to get alcohol,” Dieterle said.
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Dieterle said the changes “may usher in more long-term thinking.”
“When you hear about it you think, ‘Man that’s really convenient, I like that as a consumer,’” he said.
