Maine Bravely Protects Children from the Scourge of Adult Wine-Tasting

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network reports on a very silly law regulating wine tastings in order to remove "the possibility of observation by children." Only now even the law's sponsor says it goes too far:

"Inadvertantly, by the way that Public Safety is interpreting the law, the small specialty wine and cheese shops that were supposed to be omitted from this wound up being included," says state Rep. David Webster of Freeport.

Webster says the orginal bill allows not only wine tasting, but beer and liquor samplings at retail locations, including grocery stores. He says he worked with others, including a representative of the beverage industry, to craft an amendment aimed only at the grocery stores.

"And you know my feeling was if parents decide that they want to go to a wine tasting in a specialty store and they have a two-year-old or infant in a stroller, that's their choice, it's their children, you know?  But when families go into grocery stores and they don't want their children exposed to that they have a right to that too, and so that's what we were trying to do."

Whole story here.

[Via Overlawyered]