Unintended consequence is that they will have to drive further to purchase alcohol with an increase in car wrecks and drunk driving arrests.
Via Denver Post:
Four Nebraska beer stores criticized for selling millions of cans each year next to an American Indian reservation where alcohol is banned will remain closed after the state Supreme Court on Friday rejected their appeal.
The court thwarted the last-ditch effort to resume beer sales in Whiteclay, Nebraska, a tiny village on the border of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The ruling upholds an April decision by state regulators not to renew the stores’ licenses amid criticism that the area lacks adequate law enforcement.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is plagued by a litany of alcohol-related problems, including high rates of fetal alcohol syndrome, and activists complain that Whiteclay fuels those issues. The four stores — in a village with just nine residents — had sold the equivalent of about 3.5 million cans of beer annually.
Whiteclay has also served for decades as a remote hangout for people to panhandle, loiter, fight and pass out on sidewalks. Its residents rely on a county sheriff’s office 23 miles (37 kilometers) away for law enforcement.
“Today’s Nebraska Supreme Court decision means that the shame of Whiteclay is over,” said Dave Domina, an Omaha attorney for local residents who protested the liquor licenses. “It also means huge rocks have been removed from the road to recovery for many of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation and the Pine Ridge Reservation.”[…]
Some residents in rural Sheridan County, which includes Whiteclay, said they were concerned that closing the stores could lead to an influx of drunken drivers on Nebraska roads. Authorities have reported a slight uptick in alcohol-related crashes but said it’s too early to call it a trend or to blame the closure of the stores.
“Yes, the Whiteclay stores are closed now, but there’s still drinking that’s happening,” said Rushville Mayor Chris Heiser, who opposed the decision to shutter the retailers. “I just can’t believe that in America these days, the government can come in and shut you down like that.”
HT: Louisiana Mom