Virginia Needs to Repeal this Law Right Now

Allow me to introduce you to Title 4.1 of the Virginia Code - the Alcohol Beverage Control Act. Comprising hundreds of sections of regulations, controls, restrictions, licensure requirements, and the like, it creates an unseemly blot on the legal code of the Commonwealth. Formerly, it tasked a "Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control" with the regulation and control of Alcoholic Beverages in the Commonwealth. That was bad enough, evincing all the feel and effect of prohibitionist and monopolistic policies.

However, the Act has been amended to create, as of July 1st, 2018, an independent "Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority." This authority is invested with authority separate from the power of the legislative, executive, and judicial bodies of the Commonwealth, and is given the following extraordinary goals and powers:

"The Board of Directors of the Authority is vested with control of the possession, sale, transportation, distribution, and delivery of alcoholic beverages in the Commonwealth, with plenary power to prescribe and enforce regulations and conditions under which alcoholic beverages are possessed, sold, transported, distributed, and delivered, so as to prevent any corrupt, incompetent, dishonest, or unprincipled practices and to promote the health, safety, welfare, convenience, and prosperity of the people of the Commonwealth."

Corrupt, incompetent, dishonest and unprincipled? The only corruption I see here is the General Assembly of Virginia creating a monopoly over an entire segment of commerce, and giving that same monopoly the power to set its own rules and the rules for its competitors. Every citizen of the Commonwealth ought to be concerned over the immense potential for abuse and harm this creates. Call your delegate today to raise awareness of the import of this act, and if you don't live in Virginia, check your own state code for similarly ridiculous monopolization schemes.