SB-338 New direct wine shipping bill introduced to 2009 Maryland General Assembly
It’s that time of year again in Maryland. Ice is falling from the sky. Kids are getting school canceled every other day. And, a new direct wine shipping bill has been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly.
Senator Jamie Raskin, coming out of District 20 (the Fightin’ Twentieth!) has introduced what looks to be the same bill that was shot down in 2008. SB-338 (here is last year’s: SB-616) went through the first reading in the Health and Environmental Affairs committee on Jan 29.
Short synopsis – Us Marylanders are trying to pick up the same privilege that Virginians and Washingtonians enjoy: that of having wine shipped to our door.
Publicly, the argument against the bill is hinged on control. People fear that underage kids will order liquor over the Internet and have it delivered to them. Opponents say that the bill does not provide the State of Maryland with enough power to discipline retailers who ship to minors. This, of course, is just just fear mongering and FUD. I don’t have stats on it but I haven’t heard any significant spike of cases in Virginia where minors were getting drunk off of wine purchased over the Internet. Further, both FedEx and UPS require adult signatures when delivering shipments of wine, so at some point some adult will have to take delivery, then pass the wine to the minors.
Privately, the liquor distributors contribute a lot of money toward having these sorts of bills stamped out. They control the pricing of liquor in this state, and they intend to keep it that way. There is no logical argument against this and the only response is to find out how your local legislator feels about it and vote accordingly.
Info page on the bill
Unofficial copy of the bill
Vinotrip coverage of last year’s HB-1260 and the Wine Shipping fiasco: the intro, the fight, the defeat, and the post-mortem from the opposition.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:24 am
That sure would be nice although I’m not holding my breath. I’ll contact my legislator and let them know how I feel!
February 4th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
GA just finally starting allowing this last year.
(now if we can get Sunday Sales, that will be a miracle)
February 5th, 2009 at 6:26 am
“(now if we can get Sunday Sales, that will be a miracle)”
In MD Sunday Sales are handled county by county. So you can get your Miller High Life, you just might have to drive three counties away to do it.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I would drive 3 counties for the Champfizzle of beer on a Sun!
February 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I’m a VA guy and I can’t imagine not being able to have wines shipped right to my door. I hope this gets passed.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Thanks for the post…The hearing for the bill is this Wednesday (2/18). It is most helpful if people show up to the hearing to represent the publics opinion. You can check out this facebook “cause” page to get more info and to show your support. Hopefully this thing will get passed if we continue the effort! Here is the link:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/219249
Cheers!
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Any word on the progress of this bill? I provide home wine tastings and would love to provide them in MD.