Please explain "Dry County" (insurance, buy, college)

[MetalMonkey]

Originally Posted by Robert_J

You can drink but we'll have none of that evil dancin' goin' on.

dancin is ok if you put a sack over your body and you're really ugly and no one lust after you.

[QuixoticHobbit]

Originally Posted by MetalMonkey

The alchohal issue in the South is kind of silly. It is like bad comedy put into law.

That's pretty much the case whenever Christians are allowed to mix their backward religious views with government. You know, someone needs to build a wall to keep religion and state separate.

Oh wait, the Founding Fathers already did..

[An Einnseanair]

Quite a few half-truths about dry counties in this thread. The fact is that each and every county passes their own laws, so each county (and quite a few individual towns) can have a completely different definition of "dry". So saying dry means [this] might be valid where you live but completely untrue a few counties over.

Different definitions of "dry":

• In some counties you cannot possess, transport, or purchase any form of consumable alcohol (a true dry county).
• In some counties you cannot purchase/sell alcohol, but you can posses and transport it (lots of liquor stores just across the county line).
• Some counties are dry depending on alcohol content; beer is allowed, but wine and liquor are not; or beer and wine are allowed but liquor is not; or wine is allowed but beer and liquor are not.
• Some counties are dry based on location and quantity; by-the-drink laws are different from bulk sale. You might be able to purchase a bottle of beer, glass of wine, or mixed-drink at a bar or restaurant, but be unable to buy a 6-pack for your home fridge (dry in general, but wet at specific locations). Or the opposite; you can buy a bottle of wine for home, but by-the-drink sales are not allowed (no bars allowed, no wine with your steak at a restaurant).
• Some counties are dry, but individual towns inside the county are wet (Starkville is wet except anywhere on MSU's campus; Oktibbeha county is dry). Or the opposite: the county is wet but individual towns inside the county are dry.

Other rules that people sometimes find confusing:

• Some locations regulate depending on day or time; you can buy whatever you want except for early in the morning (hours vary, usually something like midnight to 10:00 am). Or you can buy any time except not on Sunday ("Blue Laws"). Or some combination of both. Big news was made in Starkville last summer (August, 2009) when the city changed the laws to allow limited alcohol sales on Sunday for the first time since the city was originally incorporated.
• Some locations even regulate based on temperature; it may have changed since, but when I lived in Starkville you could purchase warm alcohol of any type, but you could not purchase cold beer in bulk (cold by-the-drink beers consumed on premises were allowed). The reasoning was that this rule helped to prevent drinking while driving; you couldn't buy a cold six-pack and pop one open while driving home. But people can get very creative when it comes to alcohol; more than one cup of beer has been consumed after it passed through a copper coil submerged in a cooler of salty ice-water, and stores that sold warm beer often also sold chunks of dry ice.

So back to the OP, if you want to know what "dry" means in Monroe County, you'll have to contact the county. You'll probably get the best information from the sheriff's department (or town police if you're moving to a town) because they're the ones who enforce the laws. Just call them up and ask politely. Tell them you're planning on moving there and wanted to know about the county's restrictions on alcohol. In Mississippi, politeness will open a LOT of doors for you. Good luck!

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by nmnita

and he also turned water into wine. Now, he knew a good thing when he tasted it.

Having grown up attending a conservative rural Baptist church, I thought "wine" (i.e., water to wine conversion, drink consumed at communion, etc.) meant "grape juice" until an embarrassingly old age.

[SacalaitWhisperer]

Originally Posted by poptones

Why assume it's just about religion? Can't an atheist be misguided? Can't someone who's fairly liberal get some misguided notion about protecting people from themselves? I don't think anyone assumes pot prohibition is a "religious" issue or just something agreed upon by a bunch of church going zealots - plenty of card carrying liberals see it as their duty to protect society from the evils of "drug use" - just as they see fit to protect us from owning guns. Try lighting up a cigarette ANYWHERE in public in the allegedly "liberal" California and see where that gets you.

This is not a religious issue; there are misguided folks from every walk of life. In fact, dry counties in the south are a remnant from prohibition of the 20's - and while it was moralists calling from the pulpit who may have led that charge, there were many agendas defending that misguided policy.

How many atheists have passed blue laws?

Religious whackjob zealots are the legislative and constitutional hacks and one of the biggest problems in the USA today, professor... NOT the infidels.

[xz2y]

Originally Posted by jwkilgore

Quite a few half-truths about dry counties in this thread. The fact is that each and every county passes their own laws, so each county (and quite a few individual towns) can have a completely different definition of "dry". So saying dry means [this] might be valid where you live but completely untrue a few counties over.

Different definitions of "dry":

• In some counties you cannot possess, transport, or purchase any form of consumable alcohol (a true dry county).
• In some counties you cannot purchase/sell alcohol, but you can posses and transport it (lots of liquor stores just across the county line).
• Some counties are dry depending on alcohol content; beer is allowed, but wine and liquor are not; or beer and wine are allowed but liquor is not; or wine is allowed but beer and liquor are not.
• Some counties are dry based on location and quantity; by-the-drink laws are different from bulk sale. You might be able to purchase a bottle of beer, glass of wine, or mixed-drink at a bar or restaurant, but be unable to buy a 6-pack for your home fridge (dry in general, but wet at specific locations). Or the opposite; you can buy a bottle of wine for home, but by-the-drink sales are not allowed (no bars allowed, no wine with your steak at a restaurant).
• Some counties are dry, but individual towns inside the county are wet (Starkville is wet except anywhere on MSU's campus; Oktibbeha county is dry). Or the opposite: the county is wet but individual towns inside the county are dry.

Other rules that people sometimes find confusing:

• Some locations regulate depending on day or time; you can buy whatever you want except for early in the morning (hours vary, usually something like midnight to 10:00 am). Or you can buy any time except not on Sunday ("Blue Laws"). Or some combination of both. Big news was made in Starkville last summer (August, 2009) when the city changed the laws to allow limited alcohol sales on Sunday for the first time since the city was originally incorporated.
• Some locations even regulate based on temperature; it may have changed since, but when I lived in Starkville you could purchase warm alcohol of any type, but you could not purchase cold beer in bulk (cold by-the-drink beers consumed on premises were allowed). The reasoning was that this rule helped to prevent drinking while driving; you couldn't buy a cold six-pack and pop one open while driving home. But people can get very creative when it comes to alcohol; more than one cup of beer has been consumed after it passed through a copper coil submerged in a cooler of salty ice-water, and stores that sold warm beer often also sold chunks of dry ice.

So back to the OP, if you want to know what "dry" means in Monroe County, you'll have to contact the county. You'll probably get the best information from the sheriff's department (or town police if you're moving to a town) because they're the ones who enforce the laws. Just call them up and ask politely. Tell them you're planning on moving there and wanted to know about the county's restrictions on alcohol. In Mississippi, politeness will open a LOT of doors for you. Good luck!

Yup. It varies all over the place. Here in the north where I live (SE Michigan), no alcohol can be sold on Sundays until 12:00 noon. Blue laws!

[Cleotus]

I was born and raised in Monroe county and except for six months have lived here for 67 years. Except for beer sales inside the city limits of Aberdeen the county is dry and outside Aberdeen city limits possession of any alcoholic beverage is against the law except for "bigshots" who are allowed to have as much as they want. Lee county adjoins Monroe and is wet, many who live in Monroe buy their booze there and bring it home, but the law sets up road blocks on a regular basis so there's always the chance of getting caught.

[WestbankNOLA]

Did whoever came up with the concept not realize that people will get what they want? If they can't buy it there, they'll just go somewhere that they can get it or make it themselves. What does banning alcohol prove anyway? I also wondered do the states that require liquor to only be sold in stores that specifically sell liquor see a decrease in underage drinking. I really doubt it, but that was the only reason I could find for taking alcohol off of regular store shelves. The chance of being carded in a "liquor store" is probably about the same as getting carded in Wal-Mart.

[MauiBowman]

When you say "law sets up road blocks on a regular basis so there's always the chance of getting caught" - do you literally mean they stop traffic and search your vehicle??!

Thanks

Shane

[Robert_J]

Originally Posted by MauiBowman

When you say "law sets up road blocks on a regular basis so there's always the chance of getting caught" - do you literally mean they stop traffic and search your vehicle??!

Thanks

Shane

Yes.

I went to college in southeast Arkansas in a dry county. I grew up in the count over which was wet so I ended up having to buy booze for the other 3 guys in my house. It was difficult being underage as well as dangerous transporting that much into a dry county. For parties, I would seatbelt a keg in the front seat of my Honda CRX and put a football jersey and a hat on it.