Voters in the city of Enterprise vote Tuesday in a referendum on whether or not to allow the Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages.
Proponents of decreasing government limits on the sales of alcoholic beverages claim that it is an economic development issue. That if residents are able to make alcohol purchases in the town on Sunday they are more like to shop and dine in the city limits on Sunday.
Opponents of this increasing liberalization of alcohol regulations point to the negative societal repercussions of alcohol use. According to the National Institute of Health: an estimated 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes each year, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
Alcohol also plays a role in: domestic violence, crime, sexual assaults, suicide, absenteeism from work, some disabilities, birth defects from fetal alcohol syndrome, and poor mental health.
Alcoholism has been shown to have a profound effect on the entire body, especially the brain, heart, pancreas, mouth, liver and immune system and has been known to increase certain types of cancers.
Alcohol-impaired driving accounts for more than 30 percent of all the driving fatalities each year. More than 15 million people struggle with an alcohol use disorder in the United States. Less than eight percent of those receive treatment. More than 65 million Americans report binge drinking in the past month, which is more than 40 percent of the total of current alcohol users.
Teen alcohol use kills 4,700 people each year. That’s more than all illegal drugs combined. Drunk driving costs the United States more than $199 billion every year.
According to a 2010 report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The cost of excessive alcohol use in the United States reached $249 billion in 2010, or about $2.05 per drink served.
Voters need to bring a valid photo ID with them to the polls.
The polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m.
