Current liquor laws in B.C. are the offspring of the Prohibition era. They need to be more in tune with the times. The province’s latest step in levelling the playing field for liquor pricing is another move in straightening out the convoluted and confusing regulations that have characterized the government’s control of alcohol sales for almost a century.
The first liquor-control legislation in B.C. was implemented in 1853 at the request of Governor James Douglas, who wanted the Colony of Vancouver Island to license wholesale and retail outlets, but that had little effect on consumers’ drinking habits. It was pretty much a Wild West situation, with saloons open around the clock. Maintaining public order in early Victoria was hindered by widespread public drunkenness.
Seeking to combat the evils of alcohol, various groups advocated for temperance or outright prohibition. After the start of the First World War, temperance groups made the point that prohibition would help the war effort. The government introduced prohibition legislation, the majority of people voted in favour and prohibition became effective on Oct. 1, 1917.
It was a flop. Those with the means stocked up before the ban went into effect, aided and abetted by merchants seeking to empty their shelves of stock while it could still be sold. One store ran an ad in the Sept. 29, 1917, edition of the Victoria Daily Times offering to sell in bulk 200 gallons of rye whiskey at $4 a gallon.
Bootlegging flourished, even more so when the U.S. brought in prohibition in 1920, creating a huge cross-border opportunity for B.C.’s rum-runners.
Bars ostensibly selling only soft drinks and “near-beer,” which had a very low alcohol content, brazenly sold drinks from stocks of illicit booze kept under the bar.
The loophole allowing the sale of liquor for medicinal purposes was big enough to drive a truck through. In 1919 alone, B.C. doctors wrote 181,000 prescriptions for “medicinal liquor,” and the government sold $1.5 million worth of liquor to fill those prescriptions.
Prohibition encouraged crime and made scofflaws out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. Walter Findlay, the province’s prohibition commissioner, was arrested and jailed for smuggling in a trainload of rye whiskey from Ontario.
The ban on liquor sales was unenforceable and unpopular. In a 1920 referendum, British Columbians voted to replace prohibition with government regulation, and in 1921, legislation was introduced that gave the government control over liquor sales.
That control was draconian, and it has taken decades to relax the government’s grip on the liquor business. Rules were bizarre — when liquor by the drink was finally allowed, it could not be accompanied by music. Women entered drinking establishments by separate entrances and were not permitted in men’s drinking areas.
Control was only one focus of the government. Alcohol can be addictive, and governments are not immune — the public purse has come to depend heavily on revenues from the liquor trade. It’s now worth almost $1 billion a year to the B.C. government.
The latest move in liquor pricing is further evolution in the process of privatizing liquor sales. Alberta’s experience with almost complete privatization shows it will not result in huge increases in alcohol-related problems.
Those problems are real, no doubt about it. Alcohol is still the most abused drug there is, and it’s at the root of many ills. Still, responsible people can be trusted to drink responsibly without the government dictating every move.
We don’t want a return to the wild and wide-open days — the liquor trade still requires government regulation, but that regulation should be wise and reasonable.
It’s a watchful eye that’s needed, not a stranglehold.
