For many of us who work Monday - Friday, the weekend is all about one thing: relaxing. And, for many of us relaxing means cracking open a few beers, uncorking some wine, or mixing a cocktail.

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For me, it's sometimes all three of those things. Because I share this weekend relaxing method with many hundreds of thousands of Iowans, I was shocked to see how many Iowans are in favor of rolling back some of our alcohol laws. At least according to a new study from Desert Hope Treatment Center.

Before I dig into what they say about support of an alleged "partial prohibition", let's just look at some recent or fairly recent laws on drugs that have passed in Iowa...

  • Tobacco is now 21+ (not 18+)
  • No smoking inside... anywhere
  • Medical marijuana is legal (recreational is still not in Iowa)
  • Patrons can get alcohol to go from restaurants and bars

As you can see, the laws on tobacco, including cigarettes and vaping, have become stricter as the age has been raised. Recreational marijuana remains illegal, and alcohol laws have loosened. 

Photo by Julia Nastogadka on Unsplash
Photo by Julia Nastogadka on Unsplash
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It does become easy to see that the laws both here and nationwide have only gotten more relaxed for alcohol, as opposed to tobacco.

When you go to a town festival, you can (usually) purchase alcohol and drink it outside, on the street, whereas you still aren't legally allowed to smoke a cigarette.

This appears to be the basis for the Desert Hope study. Now, remember, they're a treatment center, so you can view this study as one-sided because it is. The study says that in Iowa, 31% or 1 in 3, support tougher alcohol laws.

That puts Iowa on the more favorable side of the study, meaning more in Iowa support tougher laws. The national average was 22%.

So what do people who support stricter laws want? According to the study, stricter laws,

...such as limiting sales to certain days of the week or times of the day.

In the study, women were more likely to vote for harsher laws than men, and older responders were more likely to favor it than younger ones, and New Mexico was the state most in favor of stricter laws.

How do you feel about our booze laws in Iowa? Personally, I don't see a reason to change them, but it's always good to hear what others have to say. You can check out the full study here.

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