Published:Saturday, June 14, 2008 12:13 AM PDT
Serving the South Coast of Oregon

State rules on alcohol delivery relaxed
Saturday, June 14, 2008 12:13 AM PDT

SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Liquor Control Commission will let grocers make same-day home deliveries of unlimited amounts of beer and wine.

The orders must be placed by 9 a.m. and delivered by 9 p.m.

The rule takes effect June 29. It replaces a temporary rule that has allowed grocers to make limited amounts of same-day beer and wine deliveries since January.

Before 2008, grocers were only allowed to deliver beer and wine ordered the previous day.. The change doesn’t apply to hard liquor sales.

Thursday’s 5-0 vote drew immediate criticism from Oregon Partnership, a nonprofit that promotes drug and alcohol awareness. The group’s president, Judy Cushing, said the change provides Oregon teens with another avenue to get alcohol.

Tom Erwin, the commission’s government affairs director, said safety is an important part of the OLCC’s mission: “We certainly don’t want to create an environment where (more underage drinking) occurs.”

Dan Floyd, a lobbyist for Safeway, which pushed for the rule change, said the chain has been making home deliveries of beer and wine for seven years without any problems. Safeway drivers are told to take down the driver’s license number of the buyer, he said, and the chain does not sell to people who are younger than 21 or visibly intoxicated.

Although the commission has been considering the rule change for months, OLCC officials said it wasn’t until Wednesday that Safeway lobbyist Gary Oxley and attorney Mark Whitlow proposed adding the idea of allowing unlimited beer and wine deliveries.


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