By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Groups that oppose expanding the availability of alcohol in Arkansas say they lost ground on that issue during the 2009 legislative session.

Other such representatives say new laws passed by the Legislature should dramatically reduce alcohol-related problems in the state.

Larry Page, executive director of the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council, said he is concerned about a new law that, among other things, allows bars and restaurants to serve alcohol on Sundays from 10 a.m. to midnight in wet counties.

State law previously allowed drink sales on Sundays between noon and 10 p.m., but only at a business that receives 60 percent of its revenue from food sales and only if voters have approved Sunday drink sales in a local option election. The new law does away with the 60 percent requirement and the need for a local option election, though a local election is still necessary to approve Sunday sales at liquor stores.

“Nobody knew about that. We weren’t aware of that provision,” Page said.

Page said the Faith and Ethics Council generally is against any expansion of the availability of alcohol, which he called “the No. 1 drug problem in the world,” but while the measure was working its way through the Legislature he thought it would only affect businesses in cities and counties that had voted to approve Sunday drink sales.

“I can assure you, had we known of this provision, we would have opposed it,” he said.

Jerry Cox, executive director of the conservative Family Council, said he also has concerns about the law, though the Family Council did not oppose the legislation during the session because alcohol laws are not the group’s top priority.

“Our position has been all along that alcohol is very plentiful,” Cox said. “We see no need to expand it anywhere in the state. Our position is: The Legislature should just draw a line and say, ‘This is enough.’”

But Teresa Belew, executive director of the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she has no problem with the law.

“Local control is still in place, because communities can pass ordinances to restrict or permit the Sunday sales,” she said.

State Alcoholic Beverage Control Board lawyer Donald Bennett said cities and counties do indeed have that ability, and at least one has already exercised it: The Green Forest City Council in Carroll County voted April 19 to ban Sunday drink sales.

Belew said the 2009 session was “a banner session” for efforts to reduce alcohol-related deaths and injuries. She said the Legislature passed laws giving police more power to enforce seat-belt laws and placing new restrictions on drivers under 18. Another law allows judges to issue to people arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated devices that will prevent the drivers’ cars from starting if they have been drinking.

The session also saw passage of a tobacco-tax increase to fund a variety of health-care programs, including a state trauma system that Belew said should greatly reduce deaths and injuries from crashes.

“I think we will look back on this legislative session as a true benchmark in the effort to reduce drinking-and-driving fatalities and injuries in the state of Arkansas,” she said.

Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, chairman of both the Legislative Task Force on Substance Abuse Treatment Services and the Legislative Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention, said the session was “absolutely” a success in terms of efforts to combat drug and alcohol abuse.

Pritchard noted that the Legislature passed measures to toughen penalties for adults who provide alcohol to minors and to make hosts who serve alcohol to minors on their property subject to criminal charges. The task forces recommended both measures.

Also, lawmakers approved spending $500,000 in tobacco settlement funds in 2010 on juvenile drug courts, to be followed by $1 million the following year, pending legislative approval in the 2010 fiscal session. The Legislature approved spending $1.5 million in tobacco settlement funds next year on adult drug courts.

Not everything the task forces recommended was approved, however. A bill Pritchard sponsored that would have removed flavored malt drinks, or “alcopops,” from grocery and convenience stores passed in the Senate but died in a House committee. Supporters said the bill would reduce underage drinking, but retailers opposed the measure.

Despite the bill’s failure, “I think we made some strides there in making people aware of the problem with that particular drink,” Pritchard said.