AUGUSTA — Maine retailers are pleading with regulators to brush aside calls to ban the sale of small liquor bottles known as nips. The proposal “will take money out of the pockets of the state’s essential business partners,” the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association said in a statement. Retailers warn the move would undermine […]
alcohol
Posted inLocal & State
State liquor panel eyes ban on ‘nips’ that could hurt Lewiston bottler
AUGUSTA — When Gov. Paul LePage makes a threat, he doesn’t often back down. So it didn’t surprise anyone that he asked the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations Tuesday to begin the process of banning the sale of miniature bottles of liquor known as “nips.” LePage vowed to seek the ban if the […]
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Posted inLocal & State
Maine Senate overrides Paul LePage’s veto of nips bill
AUGUSTA — Without much opposition Wednesday, the Senate followed the House’s lead to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a measure to require deposits for small liquor bottles known as nips. The move, which adds a nickel deposit to the 50-milliliter bottles starting in 2019, secured the required two-thirds vote by a 29-6 margin. LePage […]
Posted inLocal & State
Paul LePage vetoes deposit bill for nips
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 […]
Posted inLocal & State
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 […]
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 inLocal & State
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 inLocal & State
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 […]