40oz to freedom...

From NRO's The Corner comes an article that Ward 4 in DC has banned 40's, tall boys and other beer sold in single bottles. The idea is to reduce the number of drunks in the street.

While I understand the desire not to have drunk homeless people around, I get nervous when the government starts making policy to prevent people from doing certain activities, like smoking and drinking, that people enjoy doing but some people don't approve of. What the government seems to be saying is that if wealthy people want to get drunk, that's fine, but not the poor.

Maybe it's just the fact that I drank 40's frequently in college (there's something about a 40 of Bud Ice, some Chinese food, and a movie on a Friday night when you don't feel like going out) but I'm not a big fan of this law.

There is another effect as well - some better liquor stores sell single bottles of "better" beers, giving novice beer drinkers a chance to try different beers without commiting to a sixer of a beer they might not like - but this law prevents that as well.