MAIL-ORDER BOOZE TARGETED.Byline: Eun-Kyung Kim / Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency.Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Glen Parker waited three years on a winery mailing list An automated e-mail system on the Internet, which is maintained by subject matter. There are thousands of such lists that reach millions of individuals and businesses. New users generally subscribe by sending an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in it and subsequently receive all new before he got a rare bottle of Napa Valley Napa Valley, Calif.: see under Napa. Napa Valley greatest wine-producing region of the United States. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2990] See : Wine chardonnay shipped to his Florida home. His wait for the next bottle could be longer. Florida is the latest state to make the direct shipment of alcohol - a $1 billion business nationwide - a felony. Parker calls it ``rather silly for a state that is the principal conduit through which cocaine and other drugs are imported into our country. You'd think they'd have better things to do with their law enforcement,'' says the Boca Raton Boca Raton (bō`kə rətōn`), city (1990 pop. 61,492), Palm Beach co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic; inc. 1925. Boca Raton is a popular resort and retirement community that experienced significant industrial development in the 1970s and 80s. magazine publisher. Vintage wineries and beer-of-the-month clubs, in fact, argue the felony laws do nothing but protect powerful wholesalers worried about losing profits and their monopoly on alcohol distribution. But supporters of the laws say mail-order alcohol encourages underage drinking and cheats states out of millions in sales and excise taxes excise taxes, governmental levies on specific goods produced and consumed inside a country. They differ from tariffs, which usually apply only to foreign-made goods, and from sales taxes, which typically apply to all commodities other than those specifically exempted. . It also allows companies to skirt dry laws that govern many parts of the country. Half of the counties in Texas, for example, are dry. In Kentucky, liquor sales are outlawed in 70 of 120 counties. The admonition Any formal verbal statement made during a trial by a judge to advise and caution the jury on their duty as jurors, on the admissibility or nonadmissibility of evidence, or on the purpose for which any evidence admitted may be considered by them. was echoed in recent months by Georgia and Florida: Ship wine, do time. Following their lead, more than a dozen other states have considered making it a felony. The new laws have their greatest impact on small companies that depend on mail and Internet orders to enhance business. But the biggest losers are consumers, who end up paying more for pricey rare wines and obscure brews - if they can find them, said Bill MacIver of Matanzas Creek winery in Santa Rosa. ``This whole thing is retarding the business for everybody, it's cheating the consumer,'' MacIver said. The laws have prompted protests by dozens of California wineries, including a threatened boycott last month of Florida orange juice. Dave Dickerson of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America said many who back felony laws do so out of principle. He pointed out that residents of the ``dry'' Moore County, Tenn., home of the Jack Daniel's distillery, aren't allowed to sell whiskey they make. ``And if they don't want the product made by their brothers and sisters and mothers for sale in their county,'' he said, ``they sure don't want some out-of-state guy dropping off a case of beer or a case of wine on their neighbor's front porch.'' BOTTLE BUSTS Shipping alcohol is a felony in: Florida Georgia Kentucky Shipping alcohol is prohibited in: Arizona Arkansas Delaware Georgia Indiana Kansas Kentucky Maine Maryland Mississippi Montana New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. North Dakota South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia CAPTION(S): Photo, Box PHOTO (color) Bill MacIver, owner of Santa Rosa's Matanzas Creek Winery, says alcohol laws cheat customers. Associated Press BOX: BOTTLE BUSTS (see text) |
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