Editor’s note: Hello and welcome to Lobby Time, Fingers’ weekly overview of booze-related legislative moves around the country, published exclusively for paid subscribers. (Buy a subscription now to read this and all my coverage.) I’m piloting a new format for this paid-only feature, but my aim for now is to publish it in this Tuesday slot for the next couple months and see how it goes. Reply directly to this email or hit the comments to let me know what you think!—Dave.
Hawaii’s governor recently said opponents of lowering the state’s legal driving limit from 0.08% blood alcohol content to 0.05% BAC “deserve a place in hell.” Four timezones and 4,200 miles to the east, lawmakers in one Southeastern state have introduced bills to raise the temperature on drunk-driving a lot more literally, by prohibiting the sale of cold beer. Tackling a public-health problem by banning refrigeration makes some sense if you view alcohol-impaired driving fatalities through the prism of individual choice rather than failed systems, and have little real power to affect either. Call it the view from Plato’s beer cave.