Baltimore Sun On The Maryland Liquor Lobby
The Baltimore Sun ran and article on March 30 reporting how Maryland’s powerful liquor lobby ran through their entire agenda at the recent session of the Maryland Legislature (2008 session ends Monday).
Maryland’s powerful liquor lobby is on track to achieve virtually all of its legislative priorities during this General Assembly session – despite opposition from the attorney general, the comptroller, public health advocates and hundreds of consumers.
No opposition from those Delegates who receive funding from the distributors.
Such decisions have a big impact on Marylanders, who can’t join a wine-of-the-month club or, in most cases, pick up a six-pack at the grocery store because of industry lobbying to maintain a strict set of regulations. The result: limited competition and limited choice, consumer advocates say.
This has almost reached the point where, as an individual, one has no choice but to either take it and live with it, or run for public office at the State level. The distributors are so entrenched into the pockets of our lawmakers in Maryland, it’s clear that the public’s opinion on this matter is irrelevant.
Link to story. Thanks to David for posting this link to the comments of a previous post.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Man, ain’t nothing in Maryland but seafood, traffic, and draconian wine laws.