This summer, College Park bar owners made nice and, for a change, decided to work together. The result, which we’re sure at least a few students noticed, meant beers now cost at least $1 and shots cost at least $2. We’re all for playing in groups, but raising prices won’t increase safety.
State Sens. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) and Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) originally approached downtown bar owners, concerned that low drink prices were encouraging “excessive binge drinking.” In the past, other municipalities have collaborated to combat dangerous drinking. Bob Ryan, the city’s director of public services, compared this agreement to Baltimore County’s Cooperating Taverns and Alcohol Retailers’ Agreement. If only it were so.
The Baltimore County agreement created guidelines to promote responsible drinking and emphasizes a commitment to only serving customers 21 and older. If College Park bar owners think they did anything similar with the price floor they agreed to, they’ve overlooked elementary arithmetic. It was really cheap to get wasted on the 25-cent rails Thirsty Turtle offered this summer. But a $2 shot isn’t that expensive. Most students can probably still get drunk for around $10, so don’t expect problems connected to binge drinking – noise, assault, rape – to decline. And while the downtown’s big three – Mark Srour, John Brown and Alan Wanuck – might say they’re stepping up to combat the “excessive binge drinking” that concerned Pinsky and Rosapepe, they’re mistaken if they think this will be an effective measure.
Of course, these are sharp businessmen, and what’s most interesting about the bar owners’ agreement is how the owners themselves volunteered it as a solution to downtown binge drinking. It’s an empty gesture of investment in safety toward the senators and the university, while protecting business interests.
Ryan said the city did not look into the legality of the agreement. Few students attended the unadvertised meetings that produced the agreement, and we’d encourage any history majors familiar with the Sherman Antitrust Act to do their own digging. The law, originally passed to break up oil monopolies, aims to prevent anti-competitive practices. As the U.S. Justice Department’s website puts it, “American consumers have the right to expect the benefits of free and open competition – the best goods and services at the lowest prices. … When competitors collude, prices are inflated and the customer is cheated.”
The only party that seems to lose out is students. Students pay more for drinks, and this price floor likely won’t make them any safer, either.
