The issue with Happy Hour is it provides an opportunity to drink a large amount of alcohol in a short amount of time, leading to the possibility of binge drinking and drunk driving.
(Angie Garrett/Wikimedia Commons)
Long-time Hoosiers may never have noticed their favorite local bar doesn’t offer a Happy Hour. But if you’re new to the state, you may be asking, “Why not? Is Happy Hour illegal here?”
Happy hours are illegal in Indiana – they were banned nearly 40 years ago, in 1985. The issue? They present an opportunity to consume a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. However, the law doesn’t prevent drink specials that last all day – such as Margarita Wednesdays, for example.
According to former legislator Marc Carmichael, the key to understanding the attitude of Indiana lawmakers toward alcohol is recognizing Indiana’s Puritan heritage.
“Indiana was settled over time from the South to the North, and east to west with a fairly white, Protestant background,” he said. “And so it has been that sort of an area ever since: kind of a white Protestant, evangelical background. And, and the churches were strong in the communities, and the attitude towards alcohol was strong.”
Carmichael points to the very beginning of Indiana Code 7.1 – the chapters that govern the sale of alcohol and tobacco – where the law states its purpose is “to protect the economic welfare, health, peace, and morals of the people of this state.” That, he said, sums it up.
Carmichael served in the state House of Representatives from 1986 to 1991 and served as a lobbyist for beer wholesalers for years after that. He’s even written a book titled “A History of Alcohol and Politics in Indiana.”
He said during Prohibition, when other states didn’t even try to regulate the flow of alcohol, Indiana did.
“Indiana put a lot of money into alcohol regulation, even during Prohibition, when they didn't have any excise tax money coming in,” he said. “So their determination has been fairly consistent.”
Carmichael said Indiana’s happy hour ban came amidst a nationwide effort in the 1980s to curb two issues: binge drinking and drunk driving.
Both are still issues today. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in six adults in the U.S binge drink, with men binging more than women. And, binge drinking can have unintended consequences, including alcohol poisoning and car crashes. The CDC estimates someone is killed by a drunk driver every 45 minutes.
Lisa Hutcheson, director of the Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking, said binge drinking is especially relevant to Hoosiers.
“In fact, our binge drinking rates from 2021 show that 18-to-25-year-olds binge drink at higher rates than the U.S. average,” she said. “So nearly 36% of 18-to-25-year-olds are binge drinking, compared to 32% in the U.S.”
In 2016, at the request of some restaurant and bar owners in his LaPorte community, former State Rep. Tom Dermody filed a bill to change the law. They saw happy hours as a valuable business enticement and left the issue of responsible drinking on the shoulders of customers. Dermody’s bill failed.
Bloomington restaurateur Jeff Mease said he doesn’t miss Happy Hour, but he understands the marketing mindset behind it.“Let's get people in at the very end of the workday, or even just before the end of the workday, because it misses our dinner hour when we're so busy,” he said. Or, Happy Hour might serve as a way to draw people in who stay for dinner.
Mease said one of his restaurants, Lennie’s, counters the happy hour ban by drawing in customers with food deals.
“So rather than a cheap deal on alcohol, we have a cheap deal on food,” he said.
He said the hope is their customers will buy beer at full price “and eat our cheap food as opposed to the opposite. And I think it's more responsible, frankly.”
Mease said humans generally aren’t trained to drink responsibly.
“It's a dangerous drug for people to be drunk in a public setting,” he said. “So I've never had any issue with the rule. I think it's probably good public policy.”
Former legislator and lobbyist Carmichael said in the nearly 90 years since the end of Prohibition, each state has crafted its own individual regulations on the manufacturing, sale and distribution of alcohol. He points again to the conservative nature of Indiana.
“So, it just depends on where you live, and the attitude of the people. It may not be your attitude or my attitude, but it is the consensus of the legislature,” he said. “And they're supposed to be representing the will of the people -- of the majority of the people. And in Indiana, a very high majority of people don't use alcohol at all.”
Carmichael said he doesn’t expect state laws to change anytime soon. The same arguments that have held in the past, he said, would hold today.
