MN: Survey Finds That Most Minnesotans Don’t Want to Legalize ‘To-Go’ Alcoholic Drinks

KDHL
By Luke Lonien
March 10, 2022

During the pandemic, Minnesota bars and restaurants were allowed to sell alcoholic beverages ‘to-go’ with take-out orders. Many states enabled this when restaurants were not allowed to have patrons sit down at their establishments, and nearly all of their income was based on to-go orders.

Several states in the country made this law permanent including, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, and Ohio.

The team at the Laguna Treatment Hospital conducted a survey to see how many people would support ‘to-go’ alcoholic beverages.

Only 1-in-4 Minnesotans were in support of legalizing ‘to-go’ alcoholic drinks

This compares to a national average of 43%.

Broken down by age group, the highest percentage of those who support the law are 25 to 34-year-olds…. The second-highest proportion of supporters of to-go alcohol was the age group of 35 — 44-year-olds. The age groups of 55-64 and 65+ were most against relaxing alcohol laws.”

A majority of respondents (85%) thought that the biggest disadvantage to the permanent legalization of ‘to-go’ drinks would be an increase in drunk driving incidents.

The NHTSA reports that 28 people in the U.S die in drunk-driving accidents each day, which equals about 1 every 52 minutes.

You can see the full breakdown of the survey here.

Of course, there are a lot of places in the U.S that allow ‘to-go’ alcoholic beverages. New Orleans is well-known for uniquely allowing drive-through alcohol, including frozen daiquiri stand. Clark County, Nevada includes the Las Vegas Strip, where you can publicly drink if you so please with one caveat: no drinking within 1,000 ft of the liquor store if the beverage was purchased in a closed container.

A total of 43% of Iowans support ‘to-go’ drinks, while 29% of Wisconsin respondents support it. 43% of South Dakota respondents support it and 22% of respondents from North Dakota supported it.