A poster placed at Neely Family Distillery in Sparta, Kentucky. (Photo: Submitted)
Tony Crowder is a man with discriminating tastes when it comes to whiskey and often finds himself at distilleries in towns he visits. It’s difficult to pack multiple bottles in a suitcase with weight limits on planes and fear of breakage. The solution is simple: Have it shipped to his home in the small town of Ripley, Tennessee
But he can’t. Liquor laws in the Volunteer State prohibit the shipment of distilled spirits from other states into Tennessee.
The law goes back to Prohibition and the 18th Amendment, which banned the sale and transportation of alcohol nationwide. Passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933 reversed the ban on alcohol, and Tennessee became the 19th state to ratify it. Four years later, Tennessee repealed its ban on the manufacture of alcohol but continues to ban the sale of spirits from other states to homes in the state.
Frustrated with the inability to have whiskey shipped to his West Tennessee home, Crowder has started a petition on change.org that he hopes will bring about change.