EDITORIAL: Welcome to the nanny state

We learned this week that the Anchorage Assembly is officially out of real problems to solve, as its members voted unanimously to require restaurants, bars and breweries in the municipality to ID customers when they purchase alcohol. The group’s rationale was that a similar requirement exists for liquor stores, and that they were simply bringing parity to all licensed premises where alcohol is sold. And they argued that the move was necessary to prevent minors and those with restricted driver’s licenses from being served alcohol. If this is really a problem that deserves the Assembly’s attention (it isn’t), it should land somewhere around 99th on the list of its top 100 priorities.

It’s true that the Assembly’s action will make requirements the same for alcohol-selling businesses — but what’s less clear is why the Assembly felt like it was necessary to insert itself into the process at all. State law rightly requires alcohol-selling and serving establishments to verify that their customers are of legal age before sales, and the penalties for disobeying those laws — including stiff monetary fines and potential license suspension for the business — are more of a disincentive than anything the municipality could threaten them with. If a business or its employees are flouting the law and running the risk of such severe consequences, is the Assembly’s finger-wagging really going to dissuade them?

And while the issue of making sure licensed establishments don’t serve those with restricted (“red-stripe”) licenses does exist, those people make up a tiny fraction of establishments’ potential clientele (only a couple thousand of those licenses exist in the entire state) — and the Assembly’s action does nothing to stop them from using a non-restricted form of ID, such as a passport. It’s important to make sure people are drinking legally, but as mentioned, that state law is already on the books. Businesses are perfectly capable of complying with state law — and based on their risk tolerances, write their own company policies — without this silly local ordinance.

While the issue of checking IDs is a politically popular one because of Alaska’s well-publicized struggles with alcohol abuse, the Assembly’s action is an attempt at a feel-good measure rather than something that will actually address those problems in a meaningful way. If the Assembly stopped patting itself on the back long enough to actually combat those issues in a way that might have more effect, disincentivizing alcohol-serving establishments from overserving their patrons would be far more effective than a one-time ID check at the beginning of the evening. After all, it’s not often the first drink that results in a tragic outcome, but the fourth, fifth or eighth that a customer is served.

On the whole, it isn’t that the Assembly’s rule is a tremendous burden to customers and alcohol-serving establishments in the municipality — most places already verify customers’ ages. Rather, it’s that there’s no need for it — it adds one more bit of bureaucracy to a legal framework that’s already thick with ins, outs and what-have-yous. It’s tempting to say “it’s not a big deal,” and in a vacuum, it might not be — but the reality is that it’s only the latest in a litany of unnecessary attempts to get between a business and its customers. A responsible adult should be free to transact with a lawful business without the Anchorage Assembly playing chaperone. This measure won’t help protect Anchorage residents, and there are far greater problems — even if you restrict the topic to solely drugs and alcohol — that remain unaddressed. Wouldn’t the Assembly’s time be better spent finding solutions to those issues and butting out of our lives instead?