MD: What’s on tap for Maryland’s liquor laws?
By Tamela Baker
September 22, 2018
ANNAPOLIS — A new task force is reviewing alcohol regulations in Maryland, and the members are looking at everything from production and sales to the impact of alcohol on public health.
But mainly, they’ll be looking at whether it’s the Office of the Comptroller that should continue regulating the industry and enforcing liquor laws.
The Task Force to Study State Alcohol Regulation, Enforcement, Safety and Public Health results from legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly this year. It includes legislators, designees of the state Health Department and Maryland State Police and representatives of the Licensed Beverage Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the medical community, manufacturers, wineries and craft brewers, local law enforcement and members of the public.
One of those members of the public, Hagerstown attorney and former state legislator Bruce Poole, is chairing the panel.
The task force is just beginning its work; members have met only once so far. The goal is to produce a report with recommendations by December — in time for lawmakers to review when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.
Poole said during an interview this week that he’s impressed with the diversity of the group.
But what also has made an impression on him, he said, is the impact of alcohol abuse.
“One of the things that they asked us to consider is the impact on particular populations. What was most concerning to me … is that the Centers for Disease Control reports that alcohol use is responsible for not only 88,000 deaths” each year in the United States, he said, “but specifically there’s excessive drinking noted for the group of 12 to 20-year-olds, and that 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States is by underage drinkers.”
He also noted studies showing “a significant spike in alcohol-related disease for 20-somethings and people in their early 30s. And specifically cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and liver failure. And that shouldn’t be happening.”
“Underage drinkers drinking more alcohol and getting more drunk than they did, and then people of legal age but in their 20s and early 30s drinking so much now that they’re having liver failure and liver cancer — to me what’s evident is, for those populations the alcohol content has changed, the marketing has changed, but the design of the liver has not,” he said.
Some might say the answer is outlawing alcohol altogether. Not realistic, Poole said.
“I wouldn’t favor it; I enjoy a beer as much as anybody,” he said. “And I don’t think there’s anywhere near a majority of people on our task force that would favor something like that.” The focus will be on what more the state can do to try to make younger drinkers more aware of sensible consumption — and to keep alcohol from underage drinkers.
And while the legislation certainly emphasizes a review of these health issues, that’s just part of the panel’s assignment. Members will examine alcohol’s impact on health, existing laws regarding production and distribution, its economic impact and how Maryland regulations compare with other states for one purposed: determining whether the Office of the Comptroller is the right agency to enforce Maryland’s laws on alcohol.
And that’s gotten Comptroller Peter Franchot a bit miffed.
Getting personal?
“If and when the task force looks at the work product of our Field Enforcement Division, they’ll find a dedicated and highly professional team of career law enforcement officers who do an exceptional job ensuring taxes are properly remitted, protecting underage youth from illegal alcohol and tobacco sales, and helping small businesses grow,” Franchot said in a statement to Herald-Mail Media.
“But judging by the first meeting, the task force actually seems more focused on attacking me personally, and not evaluating the great work of the Field Enforcement Division,” he said. “More concerning to consumers and small businesses is the task force’s consideration of broader policy changes like raising the state’s 9 percent alcohol tax, establishing a government-run alcohol monopoly, or, incredibly, outright prohibition. If I were an alcohol producer, distributor, retailer, and consumer in Maryland, I’d be very anxious about the direction that this task force is headed.”
Franchot was rebuffed in his attempt last spring to get the General Assembly to reconsider restrictions placed on craft brewers in Maryland — particularly a “buy-back” provision requiring brewers to purchase a portion of their own beer from distributors if they exceed the 2,000-barrel limit on taproom sales.
He’s also been the target of Democrats in the Legislature who’ve been put off by his frequent alliance with Republican Gov. Larry Hogan on the state’s Board of Public Works. This year, for example, the General Assembly reorganized the commission that reviews school construction projects to take funding authority away from BPW because Franchot and Hogan are so often at odds with Baltimore-area school districts.
But Poole says that for him, at least, the issue isn’t Franchot.
“I am not interested at all in whether the comptroller is liked or disliked,” he said, “or whether people in the statehouse want to get retribution at him for different reasons. The thing that concerns me is just whether the comptroller’s office is best set up to deal with the health aspects. And really, is there any entity of state government that currently is dealing with it. It’s more a concern about education and addressing this issue on health.”
But he did say that some members of the task force have questioned whether “the regulating arm of state government that enforces the liquor laws also should have an elected official at the top who raises money from the liquor industry. It’s a valid concern. I don’t know where that takes us; to me, it’s just another consideration.”
At any rate, it’s too early in the process to say whether any change is needed, he said.
Carly Ogden, co-owner with her husband of the Frederick brewery Attaboy Beer, said she’s not concerned about whether the state shifts responsibility from the comptroller’s office to another state agency. Although she was involved in Franchot’s “Reform On Tap” task force, she said that “if it changes, it’s no problem. He’s just the person who signs our tax checks … we follow the rules, so it’s not an issue.”
Nevertheless, she said she and her husband are watching what happens with the new task force, but questioned whether it’s necessary. “We welcome any study” so long as it’s fairly conducted, she said. “We only want responsible drinkers. But I’m not sure it’s a great use of the taxpayers money,” she added, suggesting that dealing with the state’s opioid problems might be a better use of time.
None of the other brewers in Washington or Frederick counties responded.
Ultimately the General Assembly will have to decide whether any changes are need.
“We don’t make any laws, we don’t draft any bills,” Poole said. “We just make recommendations. And I think everybody needs to be very realistic as to what we can do.”