ALEXANDRIA
, VA – The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) is touting the strengths of the three-tier system of distribution and state-based alcohol regulation which are work to keep American consumers safe. NBWA Vice President of Industry Affairs Paul Pisano moderated a panel “Keeping Alcohol Safe: Lessons Learned from the Chinese Food Safety Scandals” on March 11, 2008, at the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association’s 15th Annual Symposium on Alcohol Beverage Law. The following day NBWA President Craig Purser participated in another panel discussion, “Where is Alcohol Regulation Headed? A Look at Emerging Trends.”
The product safety panel led by Pisano included Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) Assistant Administrator William Foster; Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Board Chief Operating Officer Curtis Coleburn; and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Food Safety Director Caroline Smith DeWaal. The group discussed how the alcohol regulatory system in the U.S. prevents counterfeit and poisonous alcohol from reaching American consumers like it does in other countries around the world.
“Reports of tainted toys, harmful toothpaste, dangerous meat and contaminated spinach are generating a real call for increased consumer protection and regulation,” said Pisano. “The state and federally regulated three-tier system of alcohol distribution in the U.S. is the most effective method of protecting American consumers from any tainted or dangerous product - not just alcohol. That’s why the American alcohol distribution system should be strengthened - not weakened.”
Before an audience of lawyers, state and federal regulators, representatives from all aspects of the alcohol beverage industry and industry allies, Pisano led the panel through a discussion of what’s currently working and what still needs to be implemented by industry and federal and state regulators to keep the system safe. Counterfeit alcohol kills tens-of-thousands of people each year globally. Countries around the world are affected, including Russia, China and Guatemala.
On Wednesday, Purser, along with Dr. Peter Anderson, a public health specialist from Girona, Spain, Tom Wark of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association and moderator Mark Brown of Sazerac Inc., discussed the success of current regulation in the alcohol industry and recent global developments that suggest that the alcohol beverage industry may be headed for a period in which organized interests will push to drastically change the current regulatory system.
Purser used his remarks to remind the audience of alcohol regulators of the importance of their role in protecting the public and the 75th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. One of his fellow panelists admitted he seeks to bring “alcohol anarchy” to the United States and have the rules on sale of alcohol the same as any other product sold in the marketplace. “It is ironic that the day after this conference heard about the dangers of unregulated production, distribution and sale of alcohol, the regulators heard from a special economic interest retailer that wants to bring the same ‘alcohol anarchy’ that compromises consumer safety in other parts of the world to the United States,” said Purser. “America rejected unregulated alcohol anarchy 75 years ago, and I urge regulators to learn from history and not repeat its mistakes of unregulated sales of alcohol.”
The symposium was held March 10-12 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.
2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, which began the state-based system of alcohol regulation that today provides Americans the safest alcohol system in the world. Across the U.S., beer distributors deliver nearly 13,000 labels of beer safely to consumers from coast to coast.