BATON ROUGE, La. -- Thousands of supermarkets and convenience stores could sell frozen daiquiris to customers under the same liquor license they use to sell sealed containers of liquor, beer and wine, if the Louisiana Legislature agrees to alcohol law changes approved by a state House committee Thursday, the Associated Press said.
Supporters of the bill by State Representative Troy Hebert (D), said those sales of frozen alcoholic drinks are allowed under current lawand daiquiris had been widely sold at such stores in rural areas. They stressed that the [image-nocss] daiquiris are not sold for consumption in the store. The drinks must be in a cup with a lidwithout a strawthey said.
But the state Office of Alcohol & Tobacco Control (ATC) said current law bans such sales. ATC Commissioner Murphy Painter said the liquor licenses granted to those type of stores allows the sales of sealed products, like bottled wine and cans of beer, for consumption elsewhere. Painter said his office does not believe that currently applies to daiquiris, even in sealed cups.
We're trying to get the law clarified so they can continue doing what they've been doing for many years, said Chris Young, a lobbyist with the Louisiana Association of Beverage Alcohol Licensees.
But opponents said the bill would throw open the doors to allow nearly every corner grocery store, gas station, c-store and local package liquor store to sell daiquiris-to-go and make it harder to enforce laws that forbid the sales of other types of nonfrozen mixed drinks at those stores. Painter said 6,000 retail stores already have the licenses that would allow the sale of frozen daiquiris under the bill.
We're going to make it easier to have these other 6,000 convenience stores put bourbon in an Icee, said State Rep. Hunter Greene (R).
Janet Dewey, with the Louisiana chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), asked lawmakers to think about their constituents. Do you think they truly want to walk into a convenience store and have alcoholic frozen drinks when they've got their kids, when they've got their teens [with them]?, she asked.
The House Judiciary Committee approved House Bill 754 in an 8 to 4 vote, sending it to the full House for debate.
The measure also would change alcohol distribution laws to say only wholesalers can ship and transport alcoholic beverages inside Louisiana directly to consumersa requirement already applied to shipments from outside the state. It would bar native Louisiana wineries from shipping directly to buyers.
The provision, added to the bill during the committee meeting, was designed to address a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws in other states as discriminatory that allowed in-state wineries, but not out-of-state businesses, to ship directly to consumers, according to George Brown, the director of the Beer Industry League of Louisiana.
Voting in favor of the bill were Democratic State Reps. Hebert, Robby Carter, Carla Dartez, Yvonne Dorsey, Bobby Faucheux, Rick Gallot, Cedric Richmond and Derrick Shepherd. Voting against were State Reps. Greene, Mike Powell, Mert Smiley and Bodi White.
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