To the Editor:
The “war on drugs” began in the Nixon administration, and yet alcohol, a potent and misused drug, is not included in this war. However, any longtime Islander knows the havoc alcohol can wreak and has wrought in Island families, health, and communities, even without expanded sales. Moreover, it is not as if Martha’s Vineyard is an alcohol-free zone; the list of Island AA meetings for those battling addiction is lengthy.
What does this tell me? Control it, don’t expand it.
Although I am unable to vote in Tisbury, as an Island resident it perplexes me that the town of Tisbury would vote to make changes to the alcohol control laws as proposed. To benefit people who want an alcoholic beverage with dinner, let them bring their own, instead of paying for overpriced ones purveyed by the restaurant.
To benefit a small slice of Tisbury business, the voters and taxpayers of Tisbury are asked to collectively assume the added expense that alcohol sales represent. Why aren’t the beneficiaries of hard liquor sales being asked to shoulder the increased costs?
These include but are not limited to more policing, a general loss of peaceable identity for a town rich in its own history and traditions, a change that makes our Island more like the places our visitors come here to escape — places that are flooded with franchised, branded, overly marketed sleaze and commotion.
Control it, don’t expand it.
Abigail Higgins
West Tisbury