With mixed drink sales on the May primary ballots in Dobson and Pilot Mountain, the issue of alcohol sales is sure to soon become a heated one. That’s good, as it’s something that needs to be discussed, provided the discourse is grounded in facts. Here’s a great site for data on alcohol as a factor in car accidents, a chief point in this discussion. You can create a statistical table to look at total accidents and alcohol-related accidents by state or by county. You can also break it down by year and/or severity of the injuries.As with any analysis, both sides can find some numbers to support their claim. For instance, 25 percent of the state’s fatal accidents over the last five years involved alcohol (versus 5 percent for all accidents), and that figure is lower in the more alcohol-restricted Surry County. On the other hand, the number of alcohol-related accidents in Surry hasn’t really jumped since mixed drinks were legalized in Mount Airy in 2003. It’s also worth noting where ABC stores now operate (try analyzing the stats of the few remaining dry counties) and how their revenue is distributed. You could spend hours processing all of this data, but it’s worth a logical look given the emotion-based arguments that often surround this issue.
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I’m for liquor by the drink in Dobson and Pilot since it will give both towns the opportunity to recruit more of the chain restaurants that many people are currently driving to Winston for. It’s important to note that statistically speaking, most drunk drivers aren’t typically getting drunk at bars and restaurants since drinks typically are quite expensive. They’re drinking at home or a friends. I don’t think that Mount Airy has become a drunk city since adopting liquor by the drink and I don’t think it will hurt Dobson or Pilot to be allowed the opportunity for some economic expansion.
I’m all for it as well, but if someone is eating in a fine dining establishment the customer probably won’t take the cost of an alcoholic beverage into consideration. Mount Airy hasn’t become a drunk city (although those opposed will probably try to say it has) so hopefully smaller towns like Dobson and Pilot will follow suit and allow liquor by the drink………..
Geni…as you can see by the recent deaths of the nicest people on earth….Liquor is not needed here. I would give anything….if it were not here at all. I worry about my children being out on the road with all the Liquor drinkers now. Say “NO” to the Vote!!!!
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As far as the grey-area concerning wine: The oldest surviving and incidentally the largest christian denomination in the world is the Catholic church. Rome contains the most extensive collection of original manuscripts of the books of the bible. And they think alcohol in moderation is more than condoned in the bible. You can think they are dead wrong if you like, but there is some grey area none the less.