{"id":18030,"date":"2016-04-29T12:02:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T00:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=18030"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:39:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T09:39:05","slug":"we-are-drug-dealers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/04\/29\/we-are-drug-dealers\/","title":{"rendered":"We are drug dealers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mandatory<\/a>
Three simple rules<\/figcaption><\/figure>One of the two real constants in my Philosophy Of Beer is that\u00a0drinking is drug-taking<\/em>.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> You can say this without being puerile or Prohibitionist; it is, after all, just the plain and literal truth. A\u00a0lot<\/em> of things are drug-taking \u2015 from my morning coffee\u00a0and daily antihistamines to things like morphine and amphetamines\u00a0\u2015 and there’s no point pretending otherwise or ignoring the wider context, variable as it is. The “drug” concept is (like everything) fuzzy at the margins, but I’m most interested in the ways it entails the need for some kind of moderation in your personal life (which I’ll return to later) and some kind of regulation in society.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Needless to say, the details vary wildly with the character of the particular drug, and it’s entirely possible to strike the balances very badly indeed. For now, as a warmup to tackling trickier issues later, let’s address one specific rule\u00a0\u2015\u00a0age<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2015 and how compliance with it\u00a0is tested.<\/p>\n

The Police regularly conduct “controlled purchase operations”, where an underage person is recruited to attempt to purchase alcohol from, say, a supermarket or a bar. That person\u00a0can lie when asked their age, but they don’t carry fake ID. Recently, Dominic Kelly \u2015 proprietor of beer bar Hashigo Zake and its importing arm\u00a0Beer Without Borders \u2015 criticised the practice<\/a>, labelling it entrapment, and describing it as\u00a0‘seedy’, ‘inherently unfair’ and ‘appalling’. Now, I like Dominic. I count him a friend and consider him one of the country’s unsung beer writers; through his editorials in B.W.B.’s entertaining newsletters<\/a> and his occasional blog<\/a>, he’s a strong and valuable voice on its\u00a0regulatory and business aspects. But here, he’s almost completely wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This just isn’t entrapment<\/em>. Not on the law as it stands in New Zealand,<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and not on the philosophy behind the idea. Entrapment<\/a>, which definitely happens and is definitely bad,<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0is all about the authorities\u00a0making you do something illegal\u00a0that you wouldn’t otherwise have done. If the minor in a CPO just joins the queue as a regular customer and offers money in exchange for stuff like anyone else, there’s no element of luring<\/em> you into it. If they’re putting special effects make up on 17 year olds so they appear in their fifties, that’d be worth arguing. But this is an utterly banal screening, like a speed camera or breath-test checkpoint on the road.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Indeed, it’s hard to imagine\u00a0how else<\/em> compliance with the purchase age could otherwise be feasibly tested.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
Simple near-necessities<\/figcaption><\/figure>In fairness, though, there’s a lot Dominic gets right on his way to being so wrong. He’s got a good eye for power imbalances and unlike most people I’ve read on this issue, he’s got empathy and concern for both the recruited minors and the front-line staff who are liable for significant fines. According to the CPO manual<\/a>\u00a0the Police use\u00a0volunteers who aren’t paid in real money for a real job,<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> but instead we learn that gift vouchers are “common practice”. Which is pants; work earns\u00a0cash. And on the law as it stands, the fines are out of whack: service staff are on the hook for $2,000 while licensee companies\u00a0face $10,000, which is almost certainly hugely disproportionate to their relative resources and doesn’t give enough incentive for real training<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u2014 plus, there’s\u00a0zero<\/em>\u00a0direct financial risk\u00a0for door staff, which seems an oversight and sets up a strange dynamic in bars. The ‘seediest’ thing about CPOs at the moment is that they usually give a tip-off as to the where and when to the Hospitality Association, which is more of a gross and reactionary lobby-group than anything really representative of the bars I prefer to work in \u2014 and drink in.<\/p>\n

The reality is that divining\u00a0a stranger’s age is\u00a0very<\/em> hard. Always. Then, every single demographic difference between you and the customer makes it harder. I am\u00a0double<\/em> the minimum purchase age\u00a0\u2014 someone\u00a0born<\/em> the day I (legally) bought my first beer can damn near buy one for themself \u2014\u00a0and I was ID’ed in the supermarket last week. And that’s\u00a0fine<\/em>. This isn’t some harmless icebreaking guessing-game among new acquaintances; they have money on the line that they can’t spare,\u00a0just as I do when I’m bartending, and they are controlling access to a not-unproblematic drug. It’s always an awkward question, too: it feels impolite and accusatory and there’s a whole lot of societal bullshit around age and status bound up in it all.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> My counsel for fellow staff is to compare the actual embarrassment of asking someone for their ID to the potentially-much-greater embarrassment of telling their boss they fucked up and the person over there in the blue uniform\u00a0would now like to have a word. And I am myself an assertive chap \u2014 even problematically so, on occasion \u2014 and carding someone is\u00a0still<\/em> uncomfortable for me.<\/p>\n

I’m all for changing the norms on this. Recently, I’ve had several customers just wordlessly offer their ID, and it’s been brilliant;\u00a0a simple reversal of the presumption which makes everything so much more civilised. If you’re under 25, do that. Hell, if you’re under 30, or think 5% of people might think you are, or it’s been less than a year since you were last carded\u00a0\u2014\u00a0do that. Too often I’ve felt I should check\u00a0someone and stalled; too often I’ve had someone take umbrage that I\u00a0did<\/em> ask. Why does anyone get grumpy\u00a0that we\u00a0might not feel like wagering a month’s pay on how many candles were on a\u00a0random person’s most-recent\u00a0birthday cake? Everyone knows that this is a controlled substance, right? This check is one of the controls. Some beloved local bars have dropped the ball\u00a0and been stung lately, and as much sympathy as I have for the complexities here, this needn’t be that hard. The rules are the rules \u2014 and on this occasion, there’s really very little\u00a0wrong with them. So let’s all play nice and retain our moral authority to\u00a0complain about things that are\u00a0actually<\/em> crap, of which there is no shortage. We are drug dealers. You are buying drugs. Let’s both do it better. We can practice on the easy stuff like this, then tackle the thornier problems.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the two real constants in my Philosophy Of Beer is that\u00a0drinking is drug-taking. You can say this without being puerile or Prohibitionist; it is, after all, just the plain and literal truth. A\u00a0lot of things are drug-taking \u2015 from my morning coffee\u00a0and daily antihistamines to things like morphine and amphetamines\u00a0\u2015 and there’s no … Continue reading We are drug dealers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[71,4,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bartending","category-blahblah","category-regulation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26462,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/05\/01\/beer-not-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":18030,"position":0},"title":"Special to us, but not special","author":"Phil","date":"May 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've worked in the beer industry for nearly two decades. I met a huge proportion of my friends through it. I write\u00a0this. It is a significant part of my identity. And it's not an easy time for beer, right now. But it makes me extremely uncomfortable when people \u2014 in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mediawatch"","block_context":{"text":"Mediawatch","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/interesting-finds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Muffin-is-special.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Muffin-is-special.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Muffin-is-special.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Muffin-is-special.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Muffin-is-special.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18444,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/10\/17\/sour\/","url_meta":{"origin":18030,"position":1},"title":"“Sour”","author":"Phil","date":"October 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a big fan of sour beers. 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