AUGUSTA — To nobody’s surprise, Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a measure to require a deposit for the tiny liquor bottles known as nips. In his veto message, the governor complained about the cost of the proposal but also offered an alternative way to address the littering problem created by the increasingly popular 50-milliliter bottles. LePage […]
alcohol
Posted inMaine
Paul LePage cites drinking and driving concern for opposition to ‘nips’
AUGUSTA — Two days after issuing a statement detailing his concerns about a proposal to require a deposit on tiny liquor bottles, Gov. Paul LePage raised an entirely new rationale for his position Thursday. LePage said the problem with the measure is that it doesn’t address the key problem involved with the fast-growing market for […]
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Posted inLetters
Alcohol is a bigger problem
Everyone is so caught up by the opiate problem but alcohol is a bigger problem. To compare, 88,000 people died from alcohol in 2014; opiate deaths came to 56,000. Hmmm. The difference is that alcohol is legal and states take in millions of dollars in taxes on the sales. If states made money from heroin […]
Posted inMaine
Why there are so many Fireball nips littering Maine
When I drove into the drug store parking lot the other day I found myself parked in a litter of little plastic liquor bottles. I mentioned this to an employee who told me they had someone who picked up the empty “nips” once or twice a day, but she dutifully grabbed a dustpan and brush […]
Posted inMaine
Richmond seeing red over improperly repealed blue law
RICHMOND (AP) — Residents of a Maine town are trying to get a measure on the ballot to repeal a blue law more than a decade after they thought the law was already struck down. Voters in Richmond voted by a show of hands at a 2005 special meeting to lift the blue law, which […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Disc golf course seeks right to get a liquor permit
Anyone who’s hung around a golf course for long has noticed that for many players, drinking and golf go hand-in-hand. It’s not so different for the fast-growing sport of disc golf, which features competitors flinging plastic discs at distant targets, except for one thing: the course owners can’t get a license to serve alcohol regularly. […]
Posted inRiver Valley
Telstar students advised of risks of drug abuse
BETHEL — “Your brain, right now, is at its best for learning,” addiction-prevention specialist Lee Anne Dodge told Telstar Regional High School students at an assembly Thursday. The assembly, sponsored by River Valley Healthy Communities in partnership with the Mahoosuc Prevention Coalition, was aimed at educating students about the consequences of underage drinking and drug […]
Posted inFranklin, Lewiston-Auburn
Kingfield man charged with giving teen girls alcohol and pot
KINGFIELD — Police said a local man is accused of giving marijuana and alcohol to two 16-year-old girls at an apartment on Mill Street. Scott Mclean, 24, of Kingfield was arrested Thursday on two felony charges of aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs and two misdemeanor counts of furnishing liquor to a minor and furnishing a […]
Posted inNation / World
Where teens can legally drink in the U.S. — yes, really
It’s one of the seemingly ironclad rules of adolescence: In the United States, you can’t drink legally until you’re 21. Of course, our underage consumption laws are flouted regularly. More than half of American 20-year-olds have tried alcohol at some point in their lives, according to the most recent numbers from the National Survey on […]
Posted inMaine
Maine welfare reform bill brings tighter scrutiny and stronger penalties
AUGUSTA — In an end-of-session compromise, a pair of Lewiston-Auburn state senators, a Democrat and a Republican, advanced legislation that tightens oversight and increases penalties for welfare recipients who abuse the system. Prior to Friday, the legislation, first offered by Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, and aimed at limiting purchases made with electronic benefit transfer cards […]