ABC Commission

A January 27 article in the News & Observer announced that a bill to make North Carolina a license state for selling liquor is unlikely to receive a vote…

Ever since the end of Prohibition over eight decades ago, North Carolina has been a “control” state for liquor. In North Carolina, government controls the pricing, warehousing, wholesale, and retail…

Since the end of Prohibition eight decades ago, North Carolina’s wineries and breweries have been making a return. As state laws have relaxed over time, those industries have started to…

This year has seen much talk already of reforming and modernizing North Carolina’s alcohol policy. An earlier research brief talked about the importance not just of making the long…

One of the best examples of pure socialism in the United States can be found right here in North Carolina – our system of distribution and sales of alcoholic beverages.

In North Carolina, beer and wine are readily available at grocery stores, convenience stores, specialty shops, even pharmacies and other places, and even on Sundays. Liquor is available in North…

North Carolina’s large and energetic craft brewing industry — over 300 strong now — chafes against the state’s arbitrary distribution cap. That’s the law that tells a brewery that…

Not long ago I wrote a report on the importance of sunset provisions with periodic review of state regulations. In it I equated reviewing old state rules with cleaning…

When the state decides to regulate an industry, it doesn’t necessarily apply the same level of regulation it uses for other regulated industries. This fact about regulation is one reason…

North Carolina’s ABC system restricts the sale of spirituous liquor in this state to an average of just 4.3 stores per county operated by local government boards. Private companies are…