Boston City Council Hears Testimony on Proposed Miniature Alcohol Bottle Ban

BOSTON — April 3, 2023 — Boston City Council takes first formal look at banning miniature alcohol bottle sales citywide. Councilor Ricardo Arroyo convened a hearing Monday on docket number 0630, making clear no vote would follow — "there is no vote happening," at-large Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said from the dais. Dr. Bisola Ojukutu, Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, told the council that Boston EMS logged 7,980 alcohol-related interactions in 2022, up from 7,704 the year prior, and that Black residents are hospitalized for alcohol misuse at a rate 83 percent higher than white residents. Former Chelsea City Council President Roy Avellaneda said alcohol-related emergency calls in Chelsea dropped from more than 720 in 2015 to 216 after the city banned miniature bottles, and Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton called the transformation of the city's downtown corridor "almost really overnight." Kathleen Joyce, Chair of the Boston Licensing Board, confirmed the board already informally conditions all new and transferred package store licenses on a voluntary agreement not to sell singles, with roughly 70 such conditions on record, though she said a formal citywide rule could face a court challenge on reasonableness grounds. Small business owners, including Steven Rubin of the Massachusetts Package Store Association and Christian Rosa of Rose's Liquors in Dorchester, argued the ban would shift sales to neighboring cities and disproportionately harm minority-owned businesses.