The ABC's of Virginia Alcohol Law

Our thanks go to the Sam Adams Alliance for supporting our work and making this video the winner of the group's 2009 "Sammie Award" for Best Video.

Produced by Austin Bragg and Caleb Brown

http://www.twitter.com/habragg
http://www.twitter.com/cobrown

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• alcohol
• virginia
• law
• free
• speech
• institute
• for
• justice
• first
• amendment
• associatioin
• bar
• beer
• shots
• liquor
• drink
• booze
• libation
• lush
• foreigner

[SullyPie08]

Wow, Virginia must suck

[rickinchvilleva]

This video only skims the surface. It doesn't mention that restaurants have to buy their liquor at retail prices from the state monopoly -- they are not allowed to purchase products from wholesalers of their choice.

What's more, they have to place their orders at least 24 hours in advance. So if a bar runs out of vodka on Friday night, they can't replenish supplies until Monday.

Socialism sucks.

[xXnXnXnXx]

Haha, im glad I live in Denmark, we dont have any alcohol rules! (except drunk driving and age limit, which really isnt enforced)

[sapr0k]

Also the VA ABC pressures business on things that are not their business. Small movie-rental/convenience store renting porn? (legally!) VA ABC says, "stop renting porn or we take your license."

Guess who's not renting porn anymore.

[yoshi99ification]

Awesome video -- as noted below, it only touches the absurdity of VA liquor laws. We can't even have real bars in the state, because your sales have to be at least 45% food/soda (that's the "ratio" baloney some defender of the ABC mentioned below). The leaders here yammer about freedom, but the ABC SS will shut you down in a heartbeat if you start telling people outside about your happy hour. Total hypocrisy.

[ballyhunto]

thank god i live in alexandria, dc and md are 10 mins away

[On0bi]

why don't they just advertise in areas outside ABC's jurisdiction? put an ad in a DC paper talking about how great your place is and how worth the trip it would be

[BucketPukes1969]

@SullyPie08 No, america sucks.

[ptc9687]

and lets be perfectly clear. ABC employees don't have any need or desire to "cross" anyone. If the ABC is "crossing" you and causing a business to lose their license, its because they have repeatedly violated ID or ratio laws. It's that easy

[ptc9687]

@ptc9687

The whole "crossing the ABC" thing is bogus. Regulatory agents, which are VA state police, not abc employees, "sting" bars like 3 times a year. If you fail, it's your fault. And there are many chances too.

As for advertising happy hours? Menus, store signs, etc, are commonplace and no one misses it...

3 gallons of whiskey vs 6 half gallons of whiskey  trouble? Odd... since almost no liquor anywhere and no liquor in the state of VA is sold in sizes larger than 1/2 gallons.