What if the state ran the drugstores?

What if other things that the state regulates were done the same half-assed way they do alcohol?

For instance, how about a pharmacy? They're always telling us alcohol is a drug. Well, then, give the drugstore the PLCB treatment! No more soda, chips, greeting cards and lipstick: sorry, this is a DRUG STORE. Imagine if the "Pharmacist" only needed the same qualifications as the Beer Distributor or the State Store Manager. How would you like that? If they're all just drugs, why shouldn't the people who dispense them have the same requirements: mostly, a pulse, and some civil service points.

Flip it the other way, and imagine if a State Store Manager had to pass a state board to prove he is qualified, like a Pharmacist does. He'd have to stay current with all new products, and know that you don't put Elderflower liquor in a Greyhound (contrary to the advice you get on the FWAGS website). That he had to know the interaction of thousands of different products, and maybe have a minor in mixology and certifications in wine or spirits. So why don't they?

Why is it easier to buy a case of Nikolai than to get Tramadol, Anexsia, Humira, or even Viagra? (You gotta figure that Viagra is popular at the PLCB considering what they do to the consumer everyday.)  Is it because the PLCB really is only giving lip service to "control" and know that they really don't, really can't do a very good job of it? Maybe it is the money. Making it more difficult would cut into the meager amount that the PLCB turns in. I'm thinking that it is most likely job protection. They have this racket going and to do anything to jeopardize it would just be going against their grain.

Who does a better job of regulation? Private Pharmacies or the PLCB?

They certainly aren't working for us: 83 years for the "freedom" to buy four bottles of wine in less than 20% of all grocery stores, or to buy a sixpack at a cafe no one ever sits in. Hell, they won't even let you drink the sixpack you just bought at the cafe they have to provide. Makes sense only in the fog shrouded mind of "modernization" supporters.

You gotta ask yourself not when they will do better but IF they ever will do better. History is not on their side. Privatize and regulate like all the normal states do.


(This is day 46 with no financials yet.)

Dangerous Things

We citizens of the Commonwealth are lied to every day by the PLCB, its associated unions, and seemingly every Democrat in the Legislature about how we need The State Stores to protect us from ourselves. That alcohol is the one drug that requires not only regulation by the state but state employees to sell it to us. Never mind that the alcohol in beer is exactly the same...but for some reason that can be sold by private businesses, or that the alcohol in a drink is exactly the same, and that can be sold by private businesses too (although they do want them to have their special PLCB training (which is of dubious value)).

What about all the different legal drugs? Why is it that pharmacies aren't run by the state and pharmacists state employees? Prescription drugs, by definition, need to regulated, but it seems that private business can handle that. There were almost a third more prescriptions filled in Pennsylvania in 2014 than all the bottles and boxes of wine and liquor of all sizes sold by the PLCB. Remember that these are drugs that the Federal government says are too unsafe to be sold without control, yet every state sells them through private businesses. Hard to explain why they aren't under state control, given the booze idiocy we put up with in Pennsylvania.

Drugs and alcohol are an apples to apples comparison. You can't explain why they are treated any differently on one side, because the other side is exactly the same. A logical fallacy has to exist: that fallacy is that we need State Stores and State Store employees to safely sell us wine and spirits. More proof is offered in that a strong majority of states have privately-owned retail alcohol sales, including every one of the states bordering the Commonwealth. Guess what: add them all up, and on a per capita basis, they do better in every alcohol harm statistic — DUI, underage DUI, binge drinking, underage binge drinking, and alcohol-related fatalities — than Pennsylvania. The "control" is not working.

How about guns? There is a saying that guns don't kill people; people kill people. Politics aside, it's at least partially true, since unless you beat somebody to death with your gun, you also need bullets. You can have all the guns you want, but without ammunition you probably aren't going to kill anything. However, while there are all sorts of regulations and controls on guns (though they are also sold by private businesses), there aren't many on ammunition. If you can buy cigarettes, you can buy bullets. Taking one drink won't kill anyone (despite what your D.A.R.E instructor may have said). One bullet can, yet you can go buy a whole box of bullets at Walmart. Is the state really looking out for our safety? 

The myths just keep exploding

So if we aren't safer having State Stores...why keep them? State revenue? How much is less safety and the worthless and patronizing annoyance of the State Stores worth? The entire non-tax contribution of the PLCB is 3/10ths of 1% of the budget. Chump change, a rounding error. So maybe it's the political patronage and nepotism. We have to deal with a system that is less convenient, has less selection, keeps us less safe, but still costs more, so some political hacks can have a nice state job? 

Or is it the entirety of the agency, a jobs program? If it's a jobs program, it's insignificant. The entire PLCB isn't even 1/10 of 1% of the state's full-time employment. You could fire every one of them, and the state unemployment rate wouldn't even quiver. If we're going to pay for a jobs program, how about we just add some jobs at PENNDOT?  We can pay for them by eliminating the Turnpike Commission and folding those jobs into PENNDOT. At least that will get something useful done.

I'm going to bet that it's union influence and a continuing stream of campaign money given to certain legislators (and directly to the parties) that keeps us from being normal. The State Store System clearly isn't better than privately-run stores, or other states would be moving toward it, and that certainly isn't happening. People want freedom of choice, and a monopoly can never provide that.

Private business is normal. 

Private sales are normal. 

Regulated business is normal. 

State-run retail is NOT normal.

Let's move toward normal.