Iowa heightens alcohol hypocrisy

By Quad-City Times

---

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has asked the federal government to ban 23.5-ounce cans of a product containing 12 percent alcohol. Miller is taking aim at Four Loko, a sweetened product chocked full of alcohol that he contends is packaged as a dangerously large serving.

Meanwhile, Miller's government employer is the sole Iowa distributor of Fireball Whisky, a cinnamon-flavored liquor far stronger than Four Loko, and sold in bigger bottles. Both Four Loko and Fireball Whisky rely on marketing to young people that emphasizes overconsumption. Here's a Fireball Whisky promotion aimed at young drinkers on its blog:

“... As I barrel through your fair city I create a wave of destruction that involves cinnamon whisky, beer, and poor decision making. We call this a Fireball Run. My goal is to amass as many people as I can on my bar-hopping adventure and to ultimately buy as many people shots as humanly possible. Let me restate that in case you missed the gravity of it: if you bar hop with me I will buy you free shots of Fireball Whisky.”

As Fireball Whisky's sole distributor in Iowa, our state government sold 3,808 cases of the stuff lauded on a Vanderbilt University student blog as “liquefied Big Red gum... This liquor is more akin to candy than it is to an actual alcohol if candy came in a 66-proof option.”

We've periodically noted on this page how Iowa is among the few states still in the government liquor wholesale business. Rather than regulate and tax competitive liquor sales like most states, Iowa buys, markets and ships all hard liquor, while taxing and regulating it. Government employees decide what hard liquor Iowans will drink and how much they will pay.

Inexplicably, the Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division also licenses, taxes and regulates its beer and wine competitors, including those selling Four Loko.

At best, it's an awkward, unfair situation. At worst, like this month, it's a blatant conflict of interest. Attorney General Miller's branch of government tries to take big cans of Four Loko off Iowa store shelves. Meanwhile, another branch of government is stocking thousands and thousands of cases of Fireball Whisky, peach-flavored rums, raspberry vodkas and Cuervo Lime cocktails, apparently at premium prices. A quick comparison of Iowa's state-government prices with those from some of Connecticut's private, wholesale distributors shows Iowans consistently are charged much more.

Consequently, Iowa's government liquor monopoly is doing fabulously. Hard work, tough pricing and savvy marketing by Iowa state government employees helped push per capita hard liquor consumption up 3.8 percent for fiscal year 2011. But it increased Iowans' per capita alcohol spending even more: 5.32 percent.

Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Terry Branstad have remained mum on Iowa's government-run liquor business. Perhaps they are silenced by the record $107 million profit this state government business generated for the general fund last year.

We believe Iowa can maintain that revenue stream, as well as regulatory, tax and fee authority without having one branch of government hold the wholesale monopoly while another files complaints against competitors.