Sorry to be dense but is this an American state thing?
Utah is home to Mormonism. One of the rules in Mormonism is you can’t do drugs so you can’t drink caffeine or alcohol.
But pop is fine (even though it has caffeine in it) and ketamine is fine (because the Book of Mormon which is DLC of the New Testament didn’t mention specifically horse tranquilizers).
You also can’t have sex before marriage because that is a sin but you can do anal sex because god didn’t specify the butt and you can even just do regular sex as long as neither of you move or thrust. Instead you can have a friend jump on the bed and if everyone ends up moving then that’s just gods will.
You also have to wear special long underwear called prayer garments but you have to keep it a secret and deny its existence to any none Mormon who asks but at the same time you have to keep giving hints to other mormons that you are wearing them so that they know you are the real deal.
Is soda pop fine now? In the early 00 I knew a family that was Mormon and they absolutely never drank soda and made sure we knew we were little heathen children for drinking it.
They then moved to Utah to get away from us NJ heathens lmfao
I think this isn’t true anymore, except in a very gross sense. Like, every restaurant in Deer Valley and Park City sells wine and/or beer. I’m pretty sure we got drinks at restaurants in Salt Lake City, too. It could, conceivably, be that only non-residents can be served alcohol, but I think I heard that wasn’t the case. You’re just not supposed to drink if you’re Mormon, and the laws are not strict about production, sales, and consumption. Maybe you can’t drink at home?
I don’t know. I just ski there, but alcohol is easily, legally, available everywhere I’ve been in Utah.
Non-Mormons are allowed to live there too.
Yes, of course, and as far as I could tell, many aren’t. However, state laws could be written s.t. residents are not allowed to purchase alcohol, regardless of Mormonicity. Laws specific to residency are not uncommon in many states. I say that only because I know purchasing booze was no harder for us, but we’re non-residents, yet Utah’s notoriety about alcohol laws imply some limitation.
You still have to show ID to purchase, so residency (or non-residency) would be easy to enforce.
As a Utah resident, I can confidently say this: the only thing UT lawmakers care about more than pushing their religion is money. They got a bunch of flak for having 19th century liquor laws in 2002 when the olympics were in SLC, so they updated them to be more in line with, say, 1950s liquor laws.
Is there an ELI5 version of the laws? Because I think a lot of us non-Utahians still either think I’d entirely illegal, or have only a vague notion that things have changed at least for tourists.
C.f. OP’s post
I’m not an expert, but there are a few bullet points I’m aware of:
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Any strong alcohol has to be purchased at a state run store. 5% ABV beer can be found in grocery stores, but any hard liquor or wine or stronger beer goes through the state. Even restaurants, so it ends up being more expensive with the extra layer of profits. This was (basically) how it worked when/where I grew up in Washington (since changed), so it’s not totally up to date with most places, but it’s also not too far removed from being pretty normal.
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No ordering alcohol at a restaurant unless you also order food. Not sure what other states do. Maybe pretty normal, maybe not? Bars are fine, but the licensing is different and more limited. There were rules about bar areas in restaurants having to be more ‘hidden’ from the main dining area, but I think that’s a thing of the past. And even older restaurants that haven’t remodeled in the last decade+ still have drinks available. It was always a minor, performative hurdle.
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(edited in) The DUI limit in Utah is .05, which is lower than most states’ .08. Whatever you think of alcohol, don’t drink and drive.
For me, who just gets a few 6-packs per month to drink at home, I don’t know all the other ins and outs. It’s always a little funny to hear outside people tell me how archaic the rules are. Maybe someone who spends every weekend at a nightclub is right, and it’s impossible to get a decent drink out on the town, but I don’t do that, so it’s not really a big deal.
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… for now…
It’s Utah but I don’t quite get the crafting part.
Maybe something to do with the survivalist prepping part of the religion?
There is a strong push to have supplies ready and being prepared to handle disaster scenarios which often involves needing to make things ad hoc like shelter, fire, etc.
May be more related to their all work no fun cultural values.
It’s a joke that women in Utah are obsessed with crafting… and it’s true
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Utah, Mormons.
That reminds me of a very old joke:
Q: Why should you always take two Mormons with you on a fishing trip?
A: If you only bring one, he’ll drink all your beer.
Arguably they would have mead instead, which is still brewing.
These are all good fun, but for the record, Uinta Brewing makes some of my favorite beers.