Wednesday, February 04, 2004

The Free Press almost endorses Free trade in Wine

Impressivley, the Detroit Free Press in its editorial Out-of-State Wine: Better to compromise on sales than pursue appeal, declares that The Michigan Attorney general should instead of pursuing what will likely be a losing appeal in the Supreme Court, compromise with those who wish to be able to order wine from outside the state and arrange for "controlled direct-to-consumer shipments of beer and wine".

Not once does the Freep bring up the "its for the children" emotional argument in favor of the ban, and for that I thank them. I'm all for the protection of children, but permitting adults to legally purchase alcohol from other states, whether from online, catalog or mail order sources does not endanger kids any more than an adult being able to buy wine at the corner store.

I'm glad the Freep is arguing against the protectionist, unconstitutional restrtaint of commerce policies of the State of Michigan. Of course, I'd rather there be no controlled direct consumer shipments, but merely shipments. Allowing "control" may reopen the battle all over again, unless the control is limited say to the limit that an adult must sign for the alcohol on delivery and it cannot be purchased by underage people.

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