Pa. Liquor Control Board must end its mission conflict


In high school, I threw the javelin in track and field, badly wanting to be recruited by a college athletics program.

PLCB Opens Prototype Store in HarrisburgThe Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board opens a second prototype store at 333 Market St. in Harrisburg. DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News

My dad would joke that he never had to worry about high school boys and unwanted attention toward me because I could out bench press almost every guy in my school. And that was my attitude, too — nothing to worry about.

So it was rather eye-opening when I got to college, taking part in rape awareness programs, learning my javelin-throwing skills were no match for a date-rape drug or inconspicuous predator. It was heartbreaking to meet girls who had endured tragic, unspeakable assaults that would haunt them for life, and I silently vowed to do everything in my power to prevent this from ever happening to me.

I would never take a drink from a guy I didn’t know, leave my drink unattended, lose contact with my friends or drink too much. But despite my commitment to these practices, it didn’t erase the most unsettling, frightening fact underneath it all: Rape isn’t the choice of the victim.

Sadly, a recent Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board campaign sent just the opposite message to women across the state.

The PLCB launched an ad campaign and website called “Control Tonight” to warn of the dangers of binge drinking. The ads show thin, bare legs on a bathroom floor, panties around the ankles, with the words “She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t say no.”

At best, this ad campaign is in poor taste, but at worst, it tells young women that binge drinking, not rapists, is to blame for rape.

This is unacceptable. An agency spokesperson says this campaign is “separate and distinct from LCB marketing and advertising efforts.” But what is painfully obvious remains the egregious conflict of interest the PLCB operates under. Not only does it spend taxpayer dollars for tone-deaf “dangers of drinking” ads, but this same government entity designs and spends our money on advertising campaigns to encourage alcohol consumption.

In essence, the PLCB sells us the ailment and the solution, all on our dime. One PLCB website says binge drinking leads to impaired decisions and potential rape, the other has a recipe for a cocktail called “Wake-up Whipped,” featuring PLCB-selected spirits. The disconnect is astounding. Can you imagine if other government entities functioned this way? If our firefighters sold fireworks, lighters and gasoline? If our teachers had taxpayer-funded after-school programs selling Cliffs-Notes?

dawn_meling.JPGDawn Meling

There should be no doubt that the PLCB enforcement of alcohol regulation and simultaneous promotion of its consumption is a conflict of interest that prevents it from effectively protecting and serving the public.

The date-rape scenario has already been pulled from the website after a massive outcry from women and men statewide, but the damage has been done. Like the failed wine kiosk program, the inventory system fiasco and the massive revenue lost from people crossing the state border to buy alcohol, the PLCB has failed to understand the market in which it operates, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.

As for the agency, its spokesperson said, "We don't see it as a conflict; we see it as fulfilling our mission." If that's true, then the PLCB must be assigned a new mission.
Ultimately, our legislators must conclude that operating contradictory missions has yielded negative consequences that have been as obvious as they are numerous.

Nonprofits and subject-matter experts who understand the issues and sensitivities behind them can better educate the public without using taxpayer money. It's time our government sends the right message to Pennsylvanians by immediately removing the PLCB from this dangerous conflict of interest.

DAWN MELING is the community liaison for the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania think tank.