A few weeks ago, I learned the hard way how easily government regulations can ruin a great night out.
A few friends and I had decided to drive about an hour outside of DC to visit Annapolis, Maryland. We were eager to go bar-hopping, but soon ran into problems: being over 21 and having valid ID to prove that wouldn’t be enough to get us booze.
It turned out that a few of us – myself included, unfortunately – had upright driving licenses. After sitting down at a local restaurant, our server told us that meant he couldn’t serve us. He insisted that Maryland law prohibits serving alcohol to anyone who tries to buy it with a vertical ID card.
“He was very adamant that Maryland only accepted vertical IDs, despite my previous experience to the contrary,” said. Jack Bailey, a friend of mine who was there that night. “I’ve been to many restaurants in Maryland where I’ve been allowed to buy alcohol.”
We finally found a restaurant that was willing to serve us, vertical IDs and all, but the incident seemed odd to me. Based on some rapids the Internet research, the experience was far from unique. In Maryland, it is not uncommon for restaurants and bars to refuse to serve vertical ID card holders, and the consensus is that Maryland law requires this restriction.
But the real reason for this practice turns out to be a convoluted mess of local rules, state laws and overzealous regulators.
Most states issue vertical licenses to drivers under 21, presumably to make it easier for bartenders to weed out underage drinkers. In some states, such as Maryland, vertical licenses are set to expire shortly after the user turns 21, to make this difference even clearer. However, in many states, including Florida and Alabama, where Jack and I are from, vertical licensing can remain in use much longer. Mine is good until a few months before my 24th birthday. Jack’s is valid until age 24.
However, despite the insistence of online commentators and our server, no law in Maryland prohibits the use of vertical identifiers in alcohol purchases. Maryland law “really doesn’t say anything about what orientation a driver’s license should have,” Jeffrey Kelly, executive director of the Maryland Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, told me. “It’s not commentary. It’s just the individual seller’s obligation to be certain the person they’re selling to is 21 or older.”
It is important to note that Maryland has other restrictive ID regulations. In Maryland, liquor vendors are technically only allowed to accept Maryland driver’s license or ID cards, military ID or state-issued electronic driver’s license. This particular regulation seems unusual, as Maryland’s five neighbors (Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, CC) allow companies to officially accept any US driver’s license.
This means companies need to be extra careful when reviewing out-of-state IDs. “If it’s an out-of-state ID, that doesn’t mean they can’t buy alcohol. It might just require another level, I guess, of assessment by the seller,” Kelly said. If the customer obviously doesn’t look over 21, a business can ask for a second piece of ID or ask the customer to sign a form swearing they’re over 21.
This seems to be part of the reason why vertical ID card holders are so often turned away in Maryland – it’s just easier than using any of the other methods of customer age verification. out of state. Rather than denying everyone who isn’t from Maryland, denying the minority of young people in their twenties with remaining vertical IDs helps businesses reduce their risk of losing their license due to accidental liquor sales. to a minor without getting rid of a load of paperwork.
However, this is not the complete reason for the tendency of bars in Maryland to refuse vertical identity holders. Local regulations and recommendations can also get in the way. “Maryland has a different approach to alcohol retail, different than most other states in the country, and it’s every local jurisdiction…[has] their own local liquor boards,” Kelly said, “So each of those local liquor boards has their own set of regulations that apply to retailers, and each jurisdiction has a unique type of legislation surrounding [sic] Also.”
For example, local government in Fredrick County, Maryland has a suggested “Responsible Selling Policy” which, among other restrictions, recommends the company require that “no employee accept a vertical ID card.”
These factors—Maryland’s narrow range of officially acceptable IDs and stringent local regulations and “suggestions”—end up causing business owners to turn away a slew of legal, paying customers. To make matters worse, many of them seem to think they’re following state law when pushing back vertical ID card holders.
My friends and I will probably stick to the DC pub crawl instead.