New Mexico May Close the Window on Drive-Up Drink

When 5 p.m. rolls around and Art Jaramillo locks the front door to his liquor store, business at his neon-lit drive-up window swells.

As cars and trucks pull up, Jaramillo is ready with 40-ounce bottles of Budweiser and bottles of tequila. His regular customers like the convenience, especially those who might be turned away under the glare of the store’s inside lights for looking too tipsy.

“When I’m drunk, I want to go home, not to convenience stores where there are lights and people can smell me,” said George, a customer who gave only his first name. “So I go to the drive-up because it’s close to my house and I won’t get hassled.”

With the nation’s highest rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths, New Mexico is slowing down to take another look at the state’s 235 drive-up windows.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a proposal in the Legislature to let New Mexico communities vote individually on whether to ban drive-up alcohol sales, something that has been around for decades.

Supporters say the measure could reduce drunken driving and the number of teenagers buying alcohol illegally.

The Legislature tried to pass a similar bill during each of the last three years. But Atty. Gen. Tom Udall said the prospects are very good this year.

“The evidence is increasing that the drive-up windows contribute significantly to our alcohol problems,” Udall said. “We should strike while the iron is hot and get it done. We could end up waiting around for years going for an outright ban.”

Despite lowering the blood-alcohol limit to 0.08% five years ago, New Mexico still leads the nation in per capita alcohol-related traffic deaths. It had 11.79 deaths per 100,000 people in 1996--19% higher than the next-highest state, Mississippi.

Mississippi is not among the two dozen states that have drive-up liquor sales. And experts do not blame drive-up windows alone for New Mexico’s drunken driving problem. They say a high alcoholism rate and a cultural custom of drinking and driving also contribute.

The problem is compounded by long distances between towns; an alcohol ban on Indian reservations that forces many people to hit the road for a drink; and the fact that, until 1993, drunken driving wasn’t even a felony in New Mexico.

While the Legislature debates the fate of drive-up liquor sales, store owners say they are tired of being blamed for the state’s drunken-driving problem. “We can’t be responsible for all of the problems on the highways,” said Dennis Salazar, owner of Saints & Sinners Liquors in Espanola. Salazar said 95% of his business is done through the window, and shutting it would put him out of business.

Lorraine Holzer appreciates the convenience. “I feel safer at the drive-ups,” Holzer said as she picked up her usual--a six-pack of beer. “I don’t like going to grocery stores at night.”

George, the man who stopped by Arturo’s Package Liquor store one recent night, said he had had about four or five beers before he drove through for some wine.

Jaramillo, the owner, said drunken drivers rarely slip through. In any case, he said, “the gas stations and lounges have the same problem, whether to serve someone. And everywhere that person who gets through is going to go back and get in his car.”

Joey Di Gregorio, president of three supermarkets in Gallup, said no liquor sellers went out of business after McKinley County banned drive-up sales in 1991.

McKinley County is the only locality authorized by law to hold such an election. The Legislature gave it the right because of its history of alcohol-related auto wrecks and people passing out drunk and dying of exposure.

Supporters want all of New Mexico to have the same opportunity to vote on drive-up liquor. The Albuquerque City Council, for the third straight year, passed a resolution asking that Bernalillo County be allowed to decide for itself.

Last year, Gov. Gary Johnson vetoed a local-option proposal that would have given business owners another liquor license if they were forced to close their drive-up windows. This year, Johnson’s office said he would sign a local-option measure provided it was not cluttered with amendments. But he’s not convinced a ban would have any effect on drunken driving.

State Rep. Joe Nestor Chavez, who owns a drive-up liquor store and bar in Albuquerque, wants to keep his window. “If you really want to solve the problem of DWIs, you should limit the places where people can buy it,” Chavez said. “Take the alcohol out of the convenience stores and put it back in the liquor stores.”