Legislation to update alcohol laws advances in W.Va. Senate
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Legislation that would make sweeping changes to West Virginia's alcohol laws, including making it clear that bring-your-own-beverage establishments are illegal while also allowing Sunday liquor sales, is advancing in the state Senate.
Passed Friday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Bill 426 also would require bars to timely notify emergency-medical or law-enforcement personnel of life-threatening medical emergencies at the establishments.
The proposed law change reflects an incident that occurred in May 2016 in Berkeley County, W.Va., said state Sen. Charles S. Trump IV, R-Berkeley/Morgan/Hampshire/Mineral, the bill's lead sponsor.
Joel Custer, 22, of Augusta, W.Va., died May 29, 2016, within minutes after using drugs that he obtained from another patron at Vixen's Gentlemen's Club in Bunker Hill, W.Va. The man accused of providing the drugs to Custer is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg.
The legislation also would require bars to notify the state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration within 48 hours of an occurrence of a life-threatening emergency. The law change also would permit the adminstration's commissioner to sanction bars for failing to comply.
Among multiple provisions contained in the bill, Senate Judiciary Committee members were advised that the bring-your-own-beverage prohibition was proposed in the legislation to make it clear that such establishments are illegal.
The beverage-control administration said last year that the bring-your-own-beverage business in Bunker Hill now known as Elysium Gentlemen's Club is not regulated by the state because it didn't have a state-issued license.
In discussing the issue, Judiciary Committee members ultimately approved an amendment that provides for a possible exception to the bring-your-own-beverage prohibition — for wine only — to be created by the alcohol adminstration through legislative rule-making.
The beverage-control administration proposed a number of changes in the bill, but Trump acknowledged that the provision to allow Sunday liquor sales statewide beginning at 10 a.m. wasn't one of them and is one of the more controversial parts of the legislation.
An attempt to remove the Sunday-sales section of the bill and preserve the current county-option law was narrowly defeated in a committee Friday.
Counties and home-rule municipalities currently can decide whether to allow restaurants and other licensed establishments to begin Sunday alcohol sales, but an alcohol administration official said the lack of uniformity across the state has created a "logistical nightmare."
Thirteen counties, including Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, and 18 home-rule municipalities, including Martinsburg, Charles Town, Ranson and Shepherdstown, allow Sunday sales.
Among other changes, the bill proposes allowing Sunday retail sales of liquor at a distillery or mini-distillery on Sundays at 10 a.m., a change area distillery owners wanted.
Rob Losey of Bloomery Plantation Distillery told committee members that allowing Sunday sales at the Jefferson County business off Charles Town Road would generate more than $30,000 in tax revenue annually.
Losey's estimate is based on current business levels and the impact of Sunday sales at wineries in nearby Northern Virginia counties.
