Redefining spirits won't protect kids
Underage drinking and drunken driving are serious problems in this country and need to be tackled head-on.
However, creating a new category for spirits that amount to flavored beer, increasing their price or changing where such products are sold would only confuse consumers and hurt the small businesses that would be forced to stop selling these products ("Mixing kids and liquor," editorial April 21).
Flavored beers are brewed like traditional beers and contain about the same alcohol content. The federal government, through the U.S. Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, has ruled that flavored beers are indeed beer. And the fact remains that they do not contain distilled spirits.
Research conducted by the Century Council shows that 65 percent of youths who drink get access to alcohol from adult family and friends.
That is why we need to refocus everyone's energy on what is most important here: keeping alcohol out of the hands of kids and empowering our nation's youths to make smart and informed decisions.
As Gov. Martin O'Malley reviews a bill that would clarify and maintain the state's current classification of flavored beer as beer ("O'Malley delays 'alcopops' measure," April 25), I hope he will keep in mind that sound policy should be based on facts, not misrepresentations.
Guy Smith, Norwalk, Conn.
The writer is executive director of a liquor distribution company.
'Alcopops' measure a menace to young
Gov. Martin O'Malley has said that he will delay signing the bill that would define "alcopops," or fruit drinks with alcohol, as beer, and continue to have them taxed at a much lower tax rate than the rate for liquor ("O'Malley delays 'alcopops' measure," April 25).
That's good. The state's attorney general, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Maryland Nurse's Association, the Maryland Association of Health Officials and others have urged the governor to veto the bill and said the liquor industry is targeting entry-level drinkers with these so-called fruit drinks that often have a higher alcohol content than beer.
The liquor industry denies doing so. But, like any other business, that industry is eager to expand its sales.
That is the American way. And nobody likes to pay higher taxes. But why should the industry get tax advantages from defining these alcohol products as beer when they are something else?
