Posted 2/10/2006 05:51:00 PM by Douglas

Noooooooo!!!!

The Sheriff's Department came by the 1,582 containers, including a keg of beer, through seizures during arrests. The containers more than filled a Dumpster after they were empty.

"We probably have this much more inside," said Capt. Bruce Evans.

The alcohol dumped by deputies and volunteers was from criminal cases already settled while the alcohol still held as evidence is from newer cases.

Much of the domestic and imported beers, wine and wine coolers and liquor came from cases involving juveniles.

The dumping happens about once a year and represents one of the larger caches of alcohol seized by law agencies, according to Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Agent Geoffery Weise, whose Amarillo office covers the top 20 counties of the Panhandle.

I wonder if they'd let me "volunteer" for this annual event? Do you think they'd get mad if I "dumped" all this confiscated hooch into my "trunk" and drove off with it? I'd promise not to give it to any kids, and I wouldn't drink (much) on the way home.

But really, what a spectacular waste of time. Only slightly dumber than the "war on drugs," the neo-prohibitionists are swinging the big guns to "keep the children safe." So what's this all about?

Melynn Huntley, grant project director of Amarillo Independent School District's Drug Free Communities, helped empty the containers. The project she directs tries to lower the drinking rate among children.

Keeping kids from drinking. Of course. Because 16 or 18 isn't enough. They're not mature enough for a beer, yet they can vote, be executed, drive, die in the military. But that beer is just out of the question. No wonder America's alcoholism rate is so much higher than Europe's.