State Board Asked To Curb Malt Liquor Sales Several Residents Favor 12-Ounce Containers Of Beer Instead Of 20-Ounce Cups At Sporting Arenas

John Ko doesn’t want to sell malt liquor to chronic drunks, but he doesn’t feel like he has a choice.

At Ko’s downtown convenience store, a card taped conspicuously to the front counter warns he won’t sell beer or wine to people who have been drinking. Ko said it doesn’t help, however, because drunks intimidate him and his wife into selling it anyway.

Ko was one of many Spokane residents who spoke before the state’s Liquor Control Board Wednesday. The three-member board was in town to hear testimony about chronic drunks downtown and alcohol licenses at sporting arenas.

In one incident, a shoplifter threatened to use a gun when Ko confronted him. “He said, ‘I have a pistol in there, want to see it?’ I was shocked,” Ko told the board. “It’s hard for us.”

Many residents and a pair of police officers said they blame shop owners who make potent 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor easily accessible at 99 cents apiece.

The board, which licenses alcohol sales, heard people talk about how problems with chronic drinkers have shifted from the West First area to portions of downtown, including Ko’s store on West Sprague.

The board also listened to suggestions about loosening or tightening alcohol licenses in the state’s nine sports arenas. Additional hearings are scheduled in Tacoma, Yakima and Vancouver, and action is not expected until September.

Board chairman Nate Ford told Ko that the state offers store owners training in how to deal with tough customers, including how to identify people and make immediate complaints on the Internet. But he added that business owners, police, and health officials all need to cooperate to improve the situation.

Many residents asked the board Wednesday to tighten licensing to force the problem out of their neighborhoods, but board member Charles Brydon said that merely disperses the problem.

Brydon offered several possible antidotes for the problem, including properly diagnosing alcoholics, and getting them treatment, dry housing, and vocational training. He added that “it’s potentially costly, but the alternative is what we have now.”

Spokane police officer Bob Grandinetti said attempts to combat the sale of malt liquor and fortified wine have failed. When the city banned the sale of fortified wine with an alcohol content of 14 percent, bottlers quickly came out with 13 percent alcohol varieties, he said.

Officer Tim Conley also told the board that police have trouble stopping drunks from panhandling. Public drunkeness has not been against the law in Washington since 1975, and many chronic alcoholics are kicked out of detox for being too violent. One option, Conley said, is to write tickets for possessing open containers of alcohol, but the $100 fine does not serve as a deterrent because it often goes unpaid.

Testimony about alcohol licenses at sporting venues such as the Spokane Arena was more subdued, since representatives from the sports vending industry recently backed off on their attempt to sell hard liquor in public seating areas.

Several residents asked the board to ban 20-ounce containers of beer in favor of 12-ounce cups, which Ford said the board would consider.

Ford said the board would discuss using different cups for wine, beer and hard liquor sales at arenas. It also is considering limiting or possibly banning walking beer vendors because it’s hard to prevent underage drinking.

Grandinetti applauded management of the Spokane Arena for its effort to restrict alcohol sales to people who appear drunk, and in clamping down on underage drinking. The results were apparent in 1997, he said. Police had only three arrests at the arena, two of which involved alcohol. In 1996, there were 12 arrests, 10 involving alcohol, he said.

, DataTimes