It is quite ridiculous to look at the Montana Department of Revenue’s page on liquor distribution. See all that bullshit about state control of alcohol promoting moderate consumption and deterring alcohol abuse? Well as it turns out, Montana is one of the worst states in the United States for drunk driving on a per capita basis.

In my little town of about 900 residents here in Montana, you can get a to go cup for any beverage at any bar in town. Butte is infamous for the streets being filled with drunken revelers on St. Patrick’s Day like this.

And then there’s the wonderfully rueful tone in the last sentence: “extremely tolerated and even legal in some locations”. In the small New Zealand town were I grew up, I wouldn’t say the public drinking was positively encouraged, but the local cop did always look at you funny if you were walking around without a bottle in your hand. He thought it was a sure sign you were up to no good. That said, I grew up in an unusual and much-mocked small town.

1. You cannot get a new liquor license in Montana. The only way to sell hard alcohol is to buy an already existing license.

2. You cannot buy hard alcohol in a grocery store- only a state liquor store or at a bar (many of which sell bottles as well as shots or mixed drinks).

3. You cannot buy Port wine in a grocery store because the alcohol content is slightly too high per the law.

4. Craft brewers in Montana are restricted as to the alcohol content of the beer they brew. It was so ridiculously low that they did manage to get the legal limit bumped up a bit this year so their products could compete with out-of-state craft beers.

All of this is extra-super-uber-ridiculous in a state where public drinking (e.g. drinking an open beer out on the sidewalk) is extremely tolerated and even legal in some locations.

Well put.

Even if anti-dumping rules aren’t abused so transparently as in this case, they still represent a significant entry barrier which does far more to harm competition than augment it. Here’s a paper you might like. I’m too dim to understand all the math.