Liquor laws need updating

Studying the travel reports of our elected officials, one would hope that they would have seen some European examples of alcoholic beverage production and marketing, but no signs of it visible in our liquor laws.

In Europe, you can see cars with wooden barrels or plastic containers on the back seats, driving to “wine countries,” where they can purchase, by the 100s of liter, refined cognac, grappa, wine and other distilled alcoholic beverages. Prevailing taxes paid at source and you are ready to go.

Most of us are descended from these folks. When did we lose our freedom and become stupid? I trust we are not been kept as serfs in order to enrich some landed folks here? Please, don’t answer this question.

It reminds me of the RCMP stopping cars, coming from the Okanagan Valley and checking how much fruit are they bringing back to Vancouver? None of us knew how much was too much. The packing houses were selling the fruit for pennies, which was sold in Vancouver retail stores for close to $2 per pound. When the RCMP took the fruit, it was thrown in the ditch.

Further, did you know that in most European countries, you can take your culled fruit to a privately-owned distiller and have it made into tasty “plum cognac, cherry cognac, potato vodka,” paying the taxes and the work etc. Why is our government insisting on sending our money to other countries, ensuring we will always be poor and little people?

Judith L. Bezeredi, Charlottetown