Free Republic

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that an 1868 ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, in his ruling on Wednesday, sided with the Hobby Distillers Association’s lawyers that the 156-year-old ban exceeded Congress’s taxing power and violated the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The Hobby Distillers Association is a group that advocates legalizing a person’s production of spirits such as whiskey and bourbon for their personal consumption. “Indeed, the Constitution is written to prevent societal amnesia of the defined limits it places on this government of and by the people,” Pittman wrote. “That is where...

The court found that regulating home alcohol stills is not one of the enumerated powers given to the government. At https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014.49.0.pdf UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION

This is such a buzz kill. As it turns out, consuming just one alcoholic beverage per day — whether it be a pint of beer, a glass of wine or a shot of your favorite spirit — can shorten your lifespan by approximately two-and-a-half months, one expert asserts Dr. Tim Stockwell, of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, told Daily Mail that those who drink significantly more alcohol than that — about 35 beverages a week — could slash a staggering two years off their lifespan. It’s a rude awakening for those who might like to unwind with a...

The age of your spirits can be the difference between something lackluster or a life changing cocktail.Wine people approach the storage and consumption of their collections rigorously. There are apps for tracking the most optimal moment for a bottle of wine to be consumed, wine refrigerators have multi-zone technology to store Bordeaux at a different temperature than Champagne, and wine service is a whole other area of nuance. Consumers aren’t nearly as precious about their spirits. Liquor bottles are typically stuffed on a bar cart, in the back of a cabinet, or buried somewhere in the freezer. But spirits, liqueurs,...

But there's a catch.Late Stone Age jugs tell us that a form of “beer,” loosely defined as represented by residues of fermentation, has been with us for 10,000 years. And the earliest evidence of wine production is 6,000 years old — so we’ve had a little time to grapple with alcohol and its bodily effects. More precisely, we’ve had several thousand years in which alcohol in its many fine forms has always gotten the better of us. Humans are, by definition, really, really good at getting drunk. Understanding the chemistry of that metabolic transaction – the immediate absorption of the...

Millions of people in the U.S. report using marijuana daily or nearly every day, according to an analysis of national survey data, and those people now outnumber those who say they are daily or nearly-daily drinkers of alcohol. Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook daily and near-daily drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. “A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical...

KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Although many supplements are claimed to prevent or alleviate the headache, nausea, fatigue, and other uncomfortable symptoms that can accompany heavy drinking, none are backed by convincing evidence. * A novel hydrogel appears to be different. When ingested, it prevents alcohol from entering the blood and stops the compound acetaldehyde from accumulating. * In experiments conducted on mice, animals that drank alcohol and were also fed the hydrogel had much lower blood alcohol levels than mice that only drank alcohol. The mice given the hydrogel were also spared from liver damage. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Share Is this the hangover...

With the new Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” in U.S. theaters as of May 17, 2024, the late singer’s relationship with alcohol and drugs is under scrutiny again. In July 2011, Winehouse was found dead in her flat in north London from “death by misadventure” at the age of 27. That’s the official British term used for accidental death caused by a voluntary risk.Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.416%, more than five times the legal intoxication limit in the U.S. – leading her cause of death to be later adjusted to include “alcohol toxicity” following a second coroner’s inquest....

A program that offers free booze to the homeless alcoholics that roam San Francisco caught flak this week when a tech CEO questioned the logic of feeding the addictions of the city’s street dwellers. Adam Nathan, founder and CEO of the small business AI marketing tool Blaze and the chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Advisory Board, posted a thread on X slamming the program after watching a string of unhoused drunks line up for their shots, stating it “just doesn’t feel right.” “Did you know San Francisco spends $2 million a year on a “Managed Alcohol Program?”...

The City of San Francisco is handing out bottles of beer, glasses of wine and shots of vodka to homeless alcoholics - and spending $5m a year on the program. The alcoholic drinks are served by nurses as part of the city's 'managed alcohol program', which has been running for four years, as a way of taking care of vulnerable homeless people. The program is designed to curb the amount of alcohol homeless people drink. It still allows them some, but in a more managed way, in the hope of curbing their addiction in a controlled manner.

The number of deaths related to excessive alcohol surged amid the stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual average number of deaths stemming from alcohol use jumped 29%, to 178,000 from 138,000, between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed last month. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, that was about 488 deaths per day, the data showed. Two-thirds of those fatalities were from long-term conditions such as liver disease and other complications from long-term alcohol abuse.

Just two weeks after the Southern Baptist Convention announced a new sexual abuse prevention and response curriculum for member congregations, new allegations have rocked a small SBC church in the Florida Keys. Monte Lavelle Chitty, 62, pastor of First Baptist Church in Marathon, has been charged with sexual assault, lewd lascivious behavior and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office news release said a 15-year-old girl accused the married pastor of sexually molesting her after serving her spiked alcohol at the church. A subsequently released arrest report detailed that the alleged victim “felt weak, could...

-Martinis costing anywhere from $30 to $150 are popping up in places like New York and San Francisco. -The maximalist martinis encapsulate "loud luxury." -Loud luxury, in contrast to "quiet luxury," is about spending a lot and owning it. Martinis are having a moment — so, naturally, that means someone has to start charging exorbitant prices for them. Enter: The $40 martini. Recent stories from Eater SF and Punch have dug into the rise of "maximalist" martinis popping up in cities such as San Francisco and New York at wildly high prices. In Manhattan, there's a $45 citrus martini at...

Last November, ATF agents dragged a Wyoming man from his house in his underwear even as he was screaming that he had a certificate authorizing him to possess firearms, a gun rights advocate told legislators on Tuesday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Jones, National Director with Gun Owners of America testifies at the Senate Agriculture Committee Meeting on Feb. 19, 2024. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Wyoming Legislature meant well when it decided to reinstate the firearms rights of nonviolent felons last year, but that could have led to a couple’s terrifying experience with federal agents, a gun rights advocate...

A team of neuroscientists and sleep researchers has found that rather than improving sleep, consuming an alcoholic beverage before bed can cause a reduction in REM sleep. Prior research has shown that REM sleep takes up approximately 20% of a typical night's sleep, but is still important. Though scientists have not yet figured out the purpose of REM sleep, they do know that people who do not get enough can experience emotional problems, mental acuity difficulties and memory issues. In this new study, the researchers explored whether consumption of alcohol prior to sleep might have a positive or negative impact...

Finnish start-up company Aircohol is pioneering the creation of a vodka-like spirit using carbon dioxide (CO2) extracted directly from the atmosphere. This ground-breaking approach has the potential to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by an astonishing 50 per cent. As they say in their own words ‘Aircohol is about saving the planet in a cheerful way!’ At the core of the process is a bioreactor that converts CO2 into alcohol through a two-day fermentation process, all while avoiding the emission of greenhouse gases. The results can be distilled yet further to produce a vodka-like spirit with an alcohol content of...

The World Health Organization (WHO) is pushing for higher taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks, arguing many countries are not using taxes to encourage healthier habits. The WHO on Tuesday released data showing the global tax rates on products like alcohol and sweetened beverages and claimed such rates are “low.” The U.N. health agency found 108 of its 194 member states are taxing some sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), though such excise taxes — which are applied for certain products — are only about 6.6 percent of the price of soda. At least 148 nations applied excise taxes to alcoholic beverages, but...

Countries need to increase their taxes on alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, saying too few states were using tax to incentivize healthier behaviors. After studying taxation rates, the WHO said the average global tax rate on such "unhealthy products" was low, and hiking taxes could result in healthier populations."WHO recommends that excise tax should apply to all sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and alcoholic beverages," the UN health agency said in a statement.Excise taxes target particular goods and services.The WHO said 2.6 million people a year die from drinking alcohol, while more than eight million die from...

Matthew Perry has died at the age of 54, TMZ has reported. The beloved “Friends” star was reportedly discovered dead in the jacuzzi of a home in Los Angeles’ ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood just after 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that first-responders rushed to the address with the call first reported as a cardiac arrest. They added that no drugs found at the scene and no foul play is suspected. In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Department stated: “We responded to the 1800 block of Blue Sail Rd for a death investigation on a male...

The evidence for keeping weed illegal keeps mounting — even as the laws get looser. A new, peer-reviewed study (on a significant data set of nearly 60,000 Canadians) has shown that adults who misuse pot have a 60% higher risk of experiencing their first heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event. In other words: Weed’s not a harmless vice. It’s a killer, like cigarettes. And unlike cigarettes, it literally drives people insane. A massive Danish study based on nearly 7 million health records drew a strong correlation between heavy cannabis use and increased risk of schizophrenia in young men....