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Comment by cammikebrown | Hacker News Reader

More unnecessary ridiculous bureaucracy. I grew up in California and bartend in Oregon (where a permit has been required as long as I’ve been in the industry). The permit test essentially is, “Do not serve people too much alcohol.” An incredibly pointless waste of resources. You have to re take the test every few years, you know, in case you’ve suddenly forgotten how to do your job.

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It's a very nice bonus to whatever companies the state has allowed to issue these certifications. More jobs for those companies, who could argue against that?! Hey I bet some of them are even friends with the governor! :)

>Hey I bet some of them are even friends with the governor! :)

Friends of legislators no doubt. Friends of the governor have better opportunities.

I disagree. Controlled substances should have some guidelines and this seems pretty low cost and low overhead on time.

I do agree that most jobs are over licensed. From barbers to landscapers, there's generally too much paperwork. But I'm ok with something that'll help the 3rd leading cause of preventable death in the country.

It could be summarized to a one page document that you read over, with more resources as optional, and a required click of "I agree, and if I fail to do so I understand that I could be prosecuted". 3 hours seems absurd. I mean, I have to re-up like 7 similar agreements (insider trading, security, confidentiality, anti-discrimination, anti-phishing etc) at my employment and it's usually 15 minutes long or less.

Nitpick but alcohol is not a controlled substance per 21 U.S.C. § 802(6) ("The term 'controlled substance' means a drug or other substance, or immediate precursor, included in schedule I, II, III, IV, or V of part B of this subchapter. The term does not include distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or tobacco...").

whoa, you're right.

thanks for the nitpick, I didn't realize Ethanol wasn't actually on the Federal Schedules.

When i bartended in Illinois the training was quite eye opening to 21 year-old me. I don't know that anyone else[1] would have told me all the ways i could be jailed, dined, and/or bankrupted from various common bar situations. I don't know that small establishments have the resources to properly find and provide that training either. That knowledge armed me to resist an awful lot of persuasion that I would have bent the house rules for.

Refreshers are nice too because they also have updated info. The second time I did my training I found out that they were relaxing some rules around special events and what was allowed where. Very useful considering the bar was in the middle of where a lot of street fest stuff occured. [2]

1. at the time and place it was the municipal authorities mandating participation, but the material was provided by the state

2. Again, this w as put on by local authorities so it included city zoning and licensing info too.

Hard disagree. If you need more convincing, please review the drunk-driving fatality stats.

I agree that you should know all of the local laws surrounding alcohol. However, it costs a fair amount of money and you basically have to sit through a classroom/video lecture training course every 3 years. I can read the law myself and pass the test easily, I don't want to give a bunch of money to random bureaucrats/cronies for no reason. California has a much lower rate of alcoholism than Oregon, and got by just fine without these pointless certifications/licenses.

People in a few hundred years are going to laugh about the laws created in late stage liberalism. The frenzy and idiocy makes things like beard taxes seem reasonable

Not in 100 hundred years, by then they will be busy hunting and fighting. But in 500 years, when they will have universities and history departments again, yes, our age will be an eternal source of amusement.

What will they call this age?

The age of plastic? Because of the traces we leave

The age of poison? Because of the large variety of noxious chemicals we put in so many of our products?

The selfish age? Because of all the dangerous waste we are leaving behind to satisfy our consumption needs

Perhaps the Age of Stupid. I am going with that. We live in the Age of Stupid

Crazy, I also grew up in CA and work in OR. When I read the title I thought this was a classic example of CA's government overreaching in ways OR's would never. I never would have guessed OR was first!

Even Texas requires a TABC certification to serve or deliver alcohol!

Servers need to be aware of all of the laws surrounding service, and what to watch out for wrt intoxication. Not all jobs are created equal- and that means there needs to be some baseline for training when it comes to safety that's this basic.

OLCC has a sanctioned monopoly on distributing hard liquor in the state and they constrain liquor sales more than CA though less than say UT.

Hey, those bureaucrats need to be able to keep making payments on that second house!

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