Credit: Photographs by Charles Steck

Rest assured, D.C. residents looking to buy alcohol in New Hampshire, the Granite State may be home to some sloppy legislation, but it does not want to take away your right to drink.

The seemingly obscure topic of New Hampshire liquor laws was in the news Monday after a man with a D.C. license was turned away at a Concord store for trying to purchase alcohol with a D.C. driver’s license—-which, of course, is not a state issued-ID.

The store manager, however, was’t questioning whether the customer’s ID was fake, but said he was simply following New Hampshire law, which states that only driver’s licenses issued from one of the states or a province of Canada are valid proofs of age.

After word of this potential legislative oversight came out, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan announced on Twitter that she would be looking into the statue.

Today, the New Hampshire Liquor Commission released a memo saying it does not believe D.C. was intentionally excluded from the law. Its position is that D.C.-issued driver’s licenses are an acceptable form of identification to purchase alcohol.

 Although the language of RSA 179:8 does not specifically reference Washington D.C. it is understood that the District of Columbia is the capitol of the United States. The Division of Enforcement and Licensing does not believe the legislative intent of the statute was to omit and thereby exclude the documents as acceptable forms of identification under Title XIII. Therefore, the Division of Enforcement and Licensing’s position is that Washington D.C.’s driver’s licenses and non –driver identification cards are acceptable for the purchase of alcoholic beverages.

The full memo cam be read below:


 

Photo by Charles Steck.