New York Attorney Wins First Place in Center for Alcohol Policy Fourth Annual Essay Contest
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Center for Alcohol Policy is pleased to announce that Laura Napoli, an attorney from New York, New York, is the winner of its Fourth Annual Essay Contest. Napoli’s essay, “A Regulatory Roadmap: The Importance of Toward Liquor Control to Modern Alcohol Policy,” outlines how Toward Liquor Control explains why today’s state alcohol regulatory systems developed the way they did and provided a blueprint for many of the alcohol regulatory systems that are in place today.
Toward Liquor Control is the result of a study commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1933, which provided a blueprint for states to follow when determining their alcohol regulatory systems following Prohibition. The Center republished the previously out-of-print book in 2011 to provide those interested in effective state-based alcohol regulation with a historical perspective and an understanding of why the system remains important today.
“The authors of Toward Liquor Control realized that national Prohibition simply could not function effectively in the America they knew,” Napoli’s essay states. “They understood that one of the main causes of Prohibition’s failure was the national government’s imposition of a blanket viewpoint on a nation made up of very diverse people. The authors therefore advised that future alcohol policies be developed based on a smaller set of viewpoints – for example, taking the views of all people in a given state or community into account.”
“Arguably the most important lesson Toward Liquor Control gives us today is to ‘keep it local,’” Napoli concludes.
Ryan Lozar, an attorney from San Diego, California, was named the second place winner in this year’s contest. Jeremy Carp, an undergraduate student at Macalester College, and Ashley Watkins, a law student at Duke University, tied for third place.
The winning entrants receive prizes of $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 respectively.
The contest is intended to foster debate, analysis and examination of state alcohol regulation. The topic of the 2011 contest was “The Importance of Toward Liquor Control to Modern Alcohol Policy.”
“Toward Liquor Control reminds readers of the challenges associated with alcohol sales and consumption before Prohibition and how today’s state-based regulatory system was established to encourage responsible alcohol consumption and promote competition while maintaining public health and safety,” said CAP Advisory Council member and Samford University Cumberland School of Law Professor Brannon Denning. “This year’s essay contest gave citizens from across our country the opportunity to study this publication and provide their insights on how many of the issues addressed in Toward Liquor Control still face policymakers today.”
The book Toward Liquor Control can be purchased online at www.centerforalcoholpolicy.org. It is also available as an iBook through Apple’s iBookstore, a NOOK book from Barnes and Noble and other popular e-book formats.
To read the winning essays, please visit https://www.centerforalcoholpolicy.org/essay-contest.
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The Center for Alcohol Policy is a 501 c(3) organization whose mission is to educate policy makers, regulators and the public about alcohol, its uniqueness and regulation. By conducting sound and scientific-based research and implementing initiatives that will maintain the appropriate state-based regulation of alcohol, the Center promotes safe and responsible consumption, fights underage drinking and drunk driving and informs key entities about the effects of alcohol consumption. For more information, visit www.centerforalcoholpolicy.org or follow the Center on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlcoholPolicy.