Bar Awareness and Legalities

In Medieval times it has been written that a person was more likely to die of a knife wound in a tavern than the victim of a heavier weapon on the battlefield.

In 1905 Jean Lanfray from Switzerland drank two glasses of Absinthe at breakfast, a creme de menthe, a cognac, and six glasses of wine during lunch then before leaving work he drank another glass of wine and once home he drank a brandy & coffee and liter of wine. He then murdered his wife and the trial was known as the Absinthe Murder.

In 1980 a drinking California driver hit a 13-year-old little girl named Cari. The car threw her body 125 feet knocking her shoes off and the hit mutilated her body so bad that no organs were available for donation. Her mother was Candy Lightner, the founding president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

In 1999, Jacqueline Saburido and two friends were hit head-on by a 20-year-old drunk driver in Texas. Her two friends died on impact but Jacqueline was pinned in the front seat and burned. She woke up in a Galveston hospital blind and hallucinating. Today, she has no ears, nose, hair, stubs for hands, and limited vision.

 

Laws to regulate alcohol consumption are not new. Between 1100 BC- 1400 AD forty-one laws were made against wine making.

In 997, so many men were being killed and injured in ale houses that King Aethelred II had to set laws to pay six half marks if a man is slain in an ale house.

In 1552, to reduce drunkenness and social disorder, King Edward VI required all alehouse keepers to have a license from the justices of the peace.

In 1839, the first known law for a drinking age is set at 16 and older in London.

In 1851, the mayor of Portland Maine, Neal Dow, drafted the first statewide prohibition law.

In 1874, The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was organized by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing their families and society.

In 1896, The Raines Hotel Law was passed in America making it illegal to sell drink on a Sunday except in hotels during meals.

In 1908, English law prohibited giving children under the age of 5 intoxicants except in an emergency or orders from a doctor.

By 1916 in America, 26 of the 48 states had already outlawed alcohol. Prohibition (the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sales of alcohol is restricted or illegal also called the Noble Experiment) for all states in America lasts between 1920 and 1933 making matters worse because of the organized underground crime it creates.

In 1937 the drinking age in America is set at 18 years old and the The National Alcohol Beverage Control Association is formed.

In 1949 the drinking age in America is set at 21 for liquor and 18 for cereal malt beverages.

In 1987 the American Federal Legislation refuses money for highway construction to any state that does not raise their drinking age for alcohol to 21. All states comply and the American drinking age is set at 21 years old for all alcohol. It’s also referred to as Zero Tolerance.

And in 1991 The Century Council is launched and is funded by America's leading distillers that promote responsible decision-making regarding beverage alcohol and fights alcohol abuse, focusing on drunk driving and underage drinking problems. The funding companies are; Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine North America, Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., Brown-Forman, Constellation Brands, Cruzan, Ltd., DIAGEO, Future Brands, LLC, Hood River Distillers, Pernod Ricard USA, and Sidney Frank Importing Co., Inc.

 

	USA DUI Table		Think about Drink
	Drinking Guideline		Drinking Knowledge Quiz
	Trashed		Drinking Quiz
	All About Alcohol		Alcohol Awareness from Cocktailtimes.com
	BRAD 21

BAC stands for Blood Alcohol Content and is also called Breath Alcohol Content or Blood Alcohol Concentration. As of 2005 all American states have adopted a BAC level of 0.08 to determine intoxication. Because we all have different bodies, genetics, weight, genders, and nutrition you can’t rely on the number of drinks as a measuring device so, your BAC is used. To give you an idea, usually one drink (1.5 ounces of liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 12 ounces of beer) will increase an average person’s BAC to 0.04. In technical terms a BAC rating of 0.20 means 1 part per 500 in a person’s blood is alcohol. The most common way roadside BAC is measured is with a Breathalyzer, however it really only gives you an estimate. There are too many scientific words to describe how a Breathalyzer works, but in a nutshell it operates by using photocells to analyze the color change of oxidation-reduction reaction. Only blood samples can give you a true reading and in some states this is the only method acceptable in a court of law. The legal BAC limit for aircraft pilots and commercial drivers in America is set at 0.04. And there’s also a much stricter standard for drivers under the age of 21 called Trace Constitutes Positive (TCP).

DWI stands for Driving While Intoxicated and DUI stands for Driving Under the Influence. Believe it or not, they say that more alcohol related transportation accidents happened before automobiles were invented. However, automobiles can weigh a couple of tons so it turns them into heavy-duty weapons when driven by a person that has been drinking, so the accidents are more fatal. American DWI laws became very strict when Candy Lightner’s, the founder of MADD, daughter was killed in 1980. In 1998 The U.S. federal government called for the installation of alcohol ignition interlocks to be installed on the cars of repeat DWI offenders. The driver blows into the device and based on the results determines the use of the ignition.

Today, bartenders can not only be fined for serving minors, but serving someone that gets a DWI or causes harm after you serve them can render consequences as well. Fines vary from state to state with some costing as much as $2000 and six months in jail. The bottom line is that it’s very serious and not worth risking your job over.

Global Drunk Driver Fines

Australia: the names of the drivers are sent to the newspapers and are printed under the heading, Drunk and in Jail. Fine up to $1000 and/or 6 months in jail with a 3-month minimum loss of license.

Austria: No accident gets a fine of 5,000 to 30,000 Austrian shillings or prison up to 6 months. With an accident, the consequences are more severe.

Bulgaria: A second conviction results in execution.

Canada: First offense fine is between $50 and $2,000 or jail for 6 months or both. Second offense is 14 days to 1 year in jail. When the motor vehicle has caused bodily injury jail is up to 10 years to death.

Czechoslovakia: Jail up to 1 year, loss of drivers license, fines up to 50,000 crowns, and confiscation of 10-25% of salary. The court may also direct that the driver be removed from his present position and employed in a less responsible job.

El Salvador: First offense is your last because you are shot by firing squad.
Finland & Sweden: Jail for 1 year, hard labor, and fines. Also, if an individual yields a vehicle to someone guilty of drunk driving, they will be fined or imprisoned for up to 1 year.

Japan: Fines up to 30,000 to 50,000 yen or 3 months - 2 years in prison with hard labor.
Malaysia: Driver is jailed and if he is married, his wife is jailed too.

Norway: 3 weeks in jail at hard labor, 1 yr loss of license. If second offense is within 5 years than license is revoked for life.

Poland: Jail, fines, and political lectures.

American Age Laws for Consuming, Pouring, and Serving for all 50 states.
This information is accurate up to 2006.
Alabama
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve Alcohol: 19 year olds may serve alcohol in an establishment holding a retail restaurant license, provided that the licensee is annually certified in the Responsible Vendor Program.

Alaska
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Sell: 21
Serve Alcohol: 21

Arizona
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve Alcohol: 21

Arkansas
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve Alcohol: 21

Arizona
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve Alcohol: 21

California
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 21 for bartenders and cocktail servers, 18 to serve alcohol in a bonafide eating place, if working in an area primarily designed and used for the sale and service of food, and as an incidental part of a server’s overall duties.

Colorado
Consume: 21
Pour: 18 if supervised by someone who is 21 only in places where full meals are regularly served. Tavern employees must be 21 unless the tavern regularly serves meals.
Serve:18 if supervised by someone who is 21. Tavern employees must be 21 unless the tavern regularly serves full meals.
Connecticut
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Legal Age to Serve Alcohol: 18

Delaware
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 19

Florida
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Georgia
Consume: 21
Pour: 18, but local ordinance can raise age.
Legal Age to Sell Alcohol
Serve: 18, local ordinance can raise age.

Hawaii
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Idaho
Consume: 21
Pour: 19
Serve: 19

Illinois
Consume: 21
Pour: 18, unless regulated differently by local ordinance.
Serve: 18, unless regulated differently by local ordinance.

Indiana
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 21 to mix, 18 to take an order, 19 and 20 year olds may serve after being certified by Excise Police and given a restricted license.

Iowa
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Kansas
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18 to serve Cereal Malt Beverage and if no less than 50% of gross receipts are derived from the sale of food.

Kentucky
Consume: 21
Pour: 20
Serve: 20
Louisiana
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Maine
Consume: 21
Pour: 17 with a supervisor on duty who is at least 21.
Serve: 17 with a supervisor on duty who is at least 21.

Maryland
Consume: 21
Pour: 18 for beer and wine licenses and 21 for beer, wine, and liquor licenses, unless otherwise regulated by city or county.
Serve: 18 for beer and wine licenses and 21 for beer, wine, and liquor licenses, unless otherwise regulated by city or county

Massachusetts
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve:18

Michigan
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Minnesota
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Mississippi
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18

Missouri
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18 to serve with permission in some establishments.
Montana
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Nebraska
Consume: 21
Pour: 19
Serve: 19

Nevada
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 21
New Hampshire
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

New Jersey
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

New Mexico
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: The legal age to serve alcohol is 21, except a 19-year-old can serve alcohol in an establishment that is held out to the public as an establishment where the primary source of revenue is food, and where the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages is not the primary activity.
New York
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

North Carolina
Consume: 21
Pour: 21 for liquor and 18 for beer and wine.
Serve: 18

North Dakota
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 19 to serve and collect money, if under direct supervision of a person 21 or older, in a restaurant which is separate from the bar area and where the gross sales of food are at least equal to the gross sales of alcohol.

Ohio
Consume: 21
Pour: 21 for liquor across a bar and 19 for beer across a bar.
Serve: 19

Oklahoma
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18

Oregon
Consume: 21
Pour: 18 with a service permit.
Serve: 18 with a service permit.
Pennsylvania
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Rhode Island
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

South Carolina
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18

South Dakota
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18 if 50% of total sales are from food, the establishment has an on-sale license, and an employee or the retailer who is at least 21 is on the premises
Tennessee
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Texas
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Utah
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 21

Vermont
Consumer: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Virginia
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18

Washington
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 18

West Virginia
Consume: 21
Pour: 18, but must be supervised by someone 21 or older at all times.
Serve, 18

Wisconsin
Consume: 21
Pour: 18
Serve: 18

Wyoming
Consume: 21
Pour: 21
Serve: 21 and 18 in dining areas only.

Global Drinking Ages
Australia: 18.
Argentina: 18.
Armenia: none.
Austria: 16.
Belgium: 15.
Brazil: 18.
Bulgaria: 16.
Canada: 19 in much of the country and 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec.
Chile: 21.
Colombia: 18.
Croatia: 18.
Czech Republic: 18.
China: none.
Denmark: 15 to purchase and 18 to consume.
Egypt: 21.
Estonia: 18.
Germany: 16 for beer & wine and 18 for spirits.
Great Britain: 18 to purchase alcohol 17 for beer or cider with a meal. It’s also the only country in the world that stipulates a minimum legal drinking age at home with parental content at age 5.
Finland: 18.
France: 16.
Honduras: 21.
Hong Kong: 18.
Hungary: 18.
Iceland: 20.
Indonesia: 16.
Ireland: 18.
Israel: 18.
Italy: 16.
Japan: 20.
Korea (South): 19.
Latvia: 18.
Lithuania: 18.
Malaysia: 18.
Malta: 16.
Mexico: 18.
Moldova: 18.
Mongolia: 18.
New Zealand: 18.
Norway: 18 for beer and wine and 20 for liquor.
Peru: 18.
Poland: 18.
Portugal: 18.
Russia: 18.
Samoa: 21.
Singapore: 18.
Slovak Republic: 18.
Slovenia: 18.
South Africa: 18.
South Korea: 19.
Spain: 16.
Sweden: 18 for beer and wine and 20 for liquor.
Thailand: none.
Turkey: 18.
Turkmenistan: 18.
Ukraine: 18.
United States: 21.
Uruguay: 18.
Venezuela: 18.

Global Prohibition
1901-1948: Prince Edward Island
1910-1928: Canberra, Australia
1914-1925 Russia
1915-1922: Liquor in Iceland
1915-1989: Beer in Iceland
1916-1927: Norway
1916-1924: Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.
1916-1919: Quebec, Canada.
1977-Present: Pakistan. Only members of non-Muslim minorities such as Hindus, Christians, and Zoroastrians and are allowed to apply for alcohol permits.
1979-Present: Iran
Present bans of production, importation, and consumption of alcohol: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Libya, and the Maldives.

Unusual Liquor Laws
There are 83 dry towns and villages in Alaska. Fairbanks is a dry town for people and moose because it's illegal to feed a moose any alcoholic beverage.

An award-winning adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood was banned from a reading list by a school board in Culver City, California, because the heroine had included a bottle of wine in the basket she brought to her grandmother.

In Iowa it’s illegal to run a tab.

Alcohol beverages can’t be displayed within five feet of a cash register of any store in California that sells both alcohol and motor fuel.

It’s a violation of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Act for producers of alcohol beverages to list the names of retailers or restaurants that sell their products in advertising or even in newsletters.

Colorado law requires that wine be sold in containers of at least 24 ounces and spirits in containers at least a fifth of a gallon. But, at the same time, it also decrees that no alcohol beverage can be stored in hotel mini-bars in anything larger than miniature containers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BAFT) bans the word refreshing to describe any alcohol beverage.

At one time, credit cards were banned in liquor stores and wine shops, but now Arkansas is the only state where they are not allowed. In New York, you can use a credit card to buy wine, but only in person. In Alabama, it's illegal to buy any alcoholic beverages by telephone, fax or e-mail.

The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a recipe for making beer that can be used at home.

A bartender in California can be convicted of selling to a minor if the purchaser uses a false or altered ID to buy the alcohol.

As of 2006, Connecticut is the only state in the northeast that hasn’t yet abolished Colonial-era Blue Laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol beverages on Sunday.

Texas and Ohio have banned the French wine, Fat Bastard.

Let's say you are a wine connoisseur and you've decided to sell your collection of rare wines to another collector. Don't even try it in New York, or in most other states. Wine must be sold through a licensed retailer.

It’s illegal to drink on a plane when flying over any dry parts of Kansas. The Attorney General of Kansas says that Kansas goes all the way up and all the way down.

Bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky, where a Baptist minister first produced it in 1789. Nevertheless, a person can be sent to jail for five years for merely sending a bottle of beer, wine or spirits as a gift to a friend in Kentucky.

Louisiana law prohibits bars and restaurants from displaying any alcohol beverage brand name that can be seen from outside the establishment.

Maryland now requires that alcohol beverage writers be certified as experts by an agency of the state before they can receive product samples, which it limits to three bottles per brand.

It's illegal in Michigan for a person under the age of 21 to give a gift of alcohol beverage to anyone, even to a person of legal age.

Mississippi imposed state-wide alcohol prohibition in 1907, 13 years before the rest of the country and it didn’t repeal until 1966.

In Saskatchewan, Canada, it's illegal to drink alcohol while watching exotic dancers.
In the 1940's, California law made it illegal to serve alcohol to a homosexual person.

Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol in Missouri.

Nebraska state law prohibits bars from selling beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup.

State law of North Dakota prohibits serving beer and pretzels at the same time in any bar or restaurant.

Texas state law prohibits taking more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.

In Utah wine used in wine tastings in Utah must not be swallowed. There are no ordinary drinking establishments in Utah; full alcohol service is available only to dues-paying members of private social clubs or a limited number of restaurants that can't advertise, display, or mention the availability of alcohol beverages And it's illegal in Utah to advertise drink prices, alcohol brands, to show a drinking scene o promote happy hour, to advertise free food, or for restaurants to furnish alcohol beverage lists unless a customer specifically requests one.

In West Virginia, bars can advertise alcohol beverage prices, but not brand names.