AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine liquor regulators see a correlation between the popularity of nip alcohol bottles and an increase in drunken driving arrests.
Maine saw a steady decline in convictions for operating under the influence from 2006 through 2014, when drunken driving convictions plunged 38 percent. But they’ve begun climbing again, growing 8 percent to 3,735 convictions from 2015 to 2016.
The Sun Journal (https://bit.ly/2sAanSm ) reports that the director of the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations declared the correlation to be “disturbing.”
Gregory Mineo said nips can be consumed in a “single swig” and tossed out a vehicle’s window so a motorist can avoid getting caught with an open container.
Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage has taken steps to ban the sale of nip-size liquor bottles after lawmakers passed the bottle-deposit law.
___
Information from: Sun-Journal, https://www.sunjournal.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.