Drinking in the morning

Every morning at breakfast, my daughter asks to drink the watered down juice I'm drinking from my cup instead of the non-juice she has in her sippy-cup. When I'm down to one swig, I give my glass to her. She drinks this over several sips, saying 'ahhhh' after each sip and about 1/3 of the juice ends up not going into her mouth. I look as her with the giant cup in her tiny hands, covering her entire face, with it dribbling down her chin and I think she looks like a drunk.

I've very rarely been drunk and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a drinker.

Before I went on Adoption Leave, a co-worker jokingly suggested that instead of going out for drinks to send me off, we go out for tea. I'm a one-drink type of guy; I have my one drink, and I don't really want anymore. The one drink doesn't make me drunk, and I never have the desire to drink any more than than. This may stem from my family never having alcohol in the house, so I was so rarely ever around it growing up, or that Lauren has Asian Red, or who knows what? I'm just not much of a drinker.

With that in mind, I don't know much about liquor laws, so none of the laws I state in this post are necessarily actual laws, they are just what I have guessed the laws to be....

In Maryland, where I spent my teen years, you couldn't get alcohol in a grocery store. It's my understanding that only places that hold a liquor license can sell the stuff and due to zoning rules, it seems that alcohol can only be bought in bars or liquor stores - I'm not sure if 2-buck (or 3-buck, due to inflation) Chuck is sold in Trader Joe's in Maryland - someone who lives in the state can let me know.

With that background in mind, imagine my shock when I moved to Michigan, went to Meijer and saw alcohol for sale at a place that also sold groceries, clothing and tires (I should really write a blog about my MSU experiences with Meijer one day, but today is not that day). I think I actually said to whoever I was with "wait, is that beer for sale with the groceries?" - I probably sounded like an idiot, but people who had only lived in Michigan were equally dumbfounded when I told them that you just can't get alcohol in a grocery store in Maryland.

Of course, I now live in Scotland, and I think the law for buying alcohol is more bizarre to me than the difference between Maryland and Michigan. 

In Scotland, you can buy alcohol in grocery stores - in fact, stores are well stocked with the stuff - but you can't buy it before 10 am. I find this law ridiculous, and have yet to figure out the reason for it.

Who would be buying alcohol before 10? 

The drunk - My guess is, if someone was so hard up for alcohol, all the time, they may not be awake before 10, or they would be so drunk they couldn't make into the store, so I don't see this being a person who the law is designed for.

The all-night partier - The person who's been partying all night and wants to continue the party. The problem with this is, many grocery stores don't even open until 8 am, so I don't see that person saying 'maybe Sainsbury's is the place for me to go at 8:15 to pick up some alcohol'. I also think the all-nighter would probably have some stashed away at home.

The planner - The person who is planning a social event for later the day/night, who wants to make sure they have everything beforehand. Why isn't this person allowed to buy alcohol before 10? Surely this person is not going to be menace after buying alcohol at 9 am.

My guess is that this law is some sort of show that drinking too much is a bad thing (which I don't disagree with in principle), but if you want to really show that, go with the Maryland law, and make it that much harder to get alcohol.

Telling shoppers who shop before 10 that they aren't allowed to buy alcohol is preaching to the wrong choir. The people who are shopping before 10 are probably people who wouldn't want to be drinking before 10 anyhow - I go to the store before 10 and I see other parents with toddlers and retired people, and and it is us that see signs like the one below; signs probably never seen by people who actually consume alcohol before 10 in the morning....