Why Idaho's Liquor Stores Have Been Deemed Essential to Stay Open

I found it very interesting that our state liquor stores have been deemed "essential" under Governor Little's "Stay Home" order, so I did some digging, and here's why.

Chief Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Idaho State Liquor Division told the Idaho Statesman that essentially it's about state revenue.

In a nutshell, Idaho's State Liquor stores run as a "non-profit" because sales go to help pay our police, firefighters, first responders, and general government agencies.

Secondly, and it's a valid point, if you force a physically dependent drinker to stop drinking cold turkey, they could have life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. Not everyone can just stop drinking without medical intervention. Our hospitals don't need that right now.

Finally, in part, the decision to keep the state liquor stores open was to avoid people getting in fights over it, ignoring the social-distancing order, and leaving the state to bring liquor back for not only consumption, but to sell it.

So, the liquor stores remain open through the "stay at home" order and I may just have a little cocktail tonight to get through being quarantined.