New reports from the State of Washington acknowledge a new problem with teen drinking since the passage of Initiative 1183, deregulating alcohol and allowing private chains and big-box retailers to sell liquor. Juvenile prosecutor Wayne Graham say's that 20 teenagers have been charged with stealing spirits from grocery stores in one county alone, since the passage of initiative 1183. "Alcohol use by students on school property has gone up, and it's not beer," the prosecutor said.
Local teens agreed that it's much easier to shoplift hard liquor from private stores. "You're not an automatic suspect when you walk in a grocery store," said one student. "It's easy."
The Washington State Organized Retail Crime Alliance indicated about $20,000 in liquor thefts from mid-September to the end of October, according to the state Liquor Control Board's enfrocement chief, and they acknowledge that they are only catching a small percent of what is happening.
“We have definitely seen an increase of thefts of hard alcohol from the stores, especially by juveniles,” Tumwater police detective Jen Kolb said, “more than likely because hard liquor was not made readily available to juveniles prior to the passing of the new law. Additionally,” Kolb said, “we have noted an increase in alcohol-related reports by the schools, and this has become a proliferating problem that needs to be addressed.”
“Law enforcement continues to feel the impact of the privatization of liquor in our state,” Olympia Police Chief Ronnie Roberts said. “At a time when we are strained by a lack of resources, we are faced with addressing another community issue that is not directly supported by revenue at the state level. Most concerning is the risk to our youth who now have even greater access to hard alcohol replacing consumption of lower alcoholic beverages like beer.”
