Keep New Concord a dry town

I'd like to start by apologizing to those who feel strongly about New Concord remaining a dry town. As a neutral party in this debate, my arguments and presentation as to why New Concord should remain dry will most likely be found lacking, but I will try my best to present a thorough and compelling case.

A key part in understanding this argument is defining what "dry" means; being "dry" means that the government forbids the sale of alcoholic beverages in some way, an idea that comes from the historic national Prohibition. For New Concord, this means that local restaurants and businesses cannot sell alcohol in any form, nor can there be any bars established in New Concord. To purchase alcohol, residents must drive somewhere outside the city limits of New Concord.

But, for New Concord residents, this may change very soon. Riesbeck's and Circle K have put issues on the ballot requesting to be able to sell beer, wine, and mixed beverages throughout the week, with Circle K also requesting Sunday sale privileges.

Although this does not mean that alcohol would immediately be available in New Concord, if the issues pass, Riesbeck's and Circle K would be able to apply for a license to sell alcohol.

With many people arguing for allowing alcohol in New Concord, there are negative aspects to this issue as well.

One argument against the sale of alcohol in Riesbeck's and Circle K is the ‘slippery slope theory.' This idea expresses the belief that once you set the precedent that certain things are okay, others are sure to follow.

In this case, once those businesses are allowed to sell alcohol, that sets the precedent that restaurants and other local businesses should be able to apply for a license, which could lead to the establishment of bars in New Concord, which has the ability to hurt the community and provide Muskingum students and other community members with excessive access to alcohol, which could lead to more noise violations and parties, which could lead to increased drunk driving and intoxication violations, which could lead to more alcohol related deaths and injuries.

I think you see where this is going.

Another argument, similar to the slippery slope argument, against the sale of alcohol in New Concord is the fact that it makes it so much more readily accessible to high school and college students, which could increase consumption as availability increases and lead to the increased misuse of alcohol.

This is especially important when you consider that New Concord is, at its heart, a college town. A large number of Muskingum students can be found each weekend holding or attending parties, both on and off campus, and this doesn't even consider those held throughout the week. This lifestyle, in combination with the popularity of Circle K among university students, has the potential to lead to an explosion of alcohol usage on campus.

While most students now visit Circle K for their daily fix of pop or snacks, that could quickly change if alcohol becomes another option. What was once a daily Polar Pop has the potential to become a daily case of beer, or a daily bottle of wine, or a daily case of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

And while the sales would definitely increase the profits of local businesses, they would also have the ability to increase the amount of parties on and off campus, add to noise ordinance violations, and affect the grades of students.

Hypothetically, the increased availability of alcohol has the potential to allow more parties, keeping students from studying and focusing on academic pursuits rather than a more active social life, and could lower the overall graduation rate at Muskingum University.

The sale of alcohol in Riesbeck's and Circle K, as mentioned previously, also leads to restaurants and other local businesses needing to sell alcohol in order to keep up. If those two businesses are allowed the sale of alcohol, they could pull in revenue from other local businesses. For example, maybe students will quit going to Dairy Duchess or Selah's in order to save up additional ‘beer money' for the weekend because the proximity of alcohol is closer and easier to access.

Although I have not covered all of the issues and reasons for keeping New Concord a dry town, the fact of the matter is, the more readily available alcohol is made, the more residents and Muskingum University students will take advantage of the opportunity to purchase alcohol, which has the potential to lead to an increased misuse of alcohol in the community.