Guilt by association: Why I support the "ID Everyone for Liquor" law

Hah, as always, I lied when I said "I'll be updating more often."

As a cashier in an Indiana supermarket that sells alcohol, I am reasonably aware of the current state of Indiana liquor laws. The basics include: 

• No sales between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
• No sales on Sundays
• You can only buy 2 24-packs (or equivalent) of beer, three giant jugs (or equivalent) of wine, and no limit on hard liquor.
• Every person wishing to buy alcohol must show photo ID unless Amish (photo-exempt ID for the horse-and-buggy crowd).

Now obviously, these laws are all kind of stupid. The one that isn't completely stupid has a very large stupid loophole. However the only one anyone bitches about is the one that is always in effect, no matter the time and no matter how much alcohol you want: the ID law.

The law was passed to prevent underage people attempting to buy alcohol at places with lax store rules. A lot of places had rules where if you looked like you were under 40 you got carded, but apparently enough got through that they decided to make it so everyone gets carded. 

Naturally, the people who are most pissed off are the super-old. I've been complained to about that law more than I ever thought I would. Seriously, assholes, I get paid $7.80 per hour. If I could do that without the extra effort and time of carding everyone with a mini-bottle of wine, I would. I am not the person to complain to about this. Or anything.

Since the new year, old people have taken up saying, "I thought they changed that law!" It takes an experienced mind to analyse this particular bit of bullshit, and I've had more than enough time (six seconds) to do it. What they mean to say is, "I read in a newspaper once that someone proposed changing the law because they were rich or powerful and were mildly inconvenienced by it and couldn't get past it with, 'do you know who I am?!' so they proposed changing the law." This is a far fucking cry from "changed that law".


Now, someone did propose changing that law. One state rep from my area said he was carded when all he wanted was change for a dollar in a liquor store. In the interest of being absolutely clear, I will not mince words:


That's not true. This man is lying or an idiot. Which one? Doesn't matter, the result is the same.

If you need change for a dollar, you go into the first store you see. If it's a liquor store, you think, "Eh, what's the next store?" and go to that. Furthermore, since I've been a child, the law has been everyone gets IDed upon entering a liquor store, and if they're under 21 they can't enter at all.


But I digress. The last news story that turns up in a Google search for "indiana repeal liquor id" is from 19 Feb, and it's about liquor store owners largely opposing the repeal. Before that, it's 4 Feb, a story about the House passing the bill. The Senate hasn't done shit about it. 


But all this information is irrelevant, because at my store, we have to ID everyone regardless of state law. I am really desperate to just blurt out "nope, wrong" when they mention the law changing. I'm starting to enjoy carding people, just because they don't like getting out their IDs. And upon reading the "liquor store owners oppose repeal" story and learning that under-21s have mostly stopped trying to buy alcohol, I'm way more in favour of this law than nearly any other.