At least not according to Washington state booze-acrats:
In the middle of the Tripwires’ performance at the Sunset Tavern last October, guitarist Jim Sangster noticed his cocktail had gone missing. “I had a Makers Mark and a beer on a road case beside the stage; I turned around and they were gone.” Sangster’s drink had been confiscated by a representative of the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Sangster was in technical violation of a provisional rule, WAC 314-11-015, that forbids drinking by “any person performing services on a licensed premises for the benefit of the licensee.”
As nanny statists sink their hooks ever deeper into the still-twitching corpse of American individualism, their rules manifest themselves in increasingly ludicrous ways, with judicial commentary to match. Consider that last year, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the state’s smoking ban included on-stage actors, claiming that public health concerns trumped freedom of expression. The lone dissent opined that “character and plots would lack depth and expressive force without such effects as smoke hovering on stage or an actor’s poignant puff.” Hell, never mind mentioning property rights; now judges have to be theater critics, apparently.
Speaking of which, there is also the example of children’s lemonade stands being shut down by government agents (cops or health inspectors or the like), a fresh story popping up to national attention periodically. The most recent example being that of a 7-year old, fastidious about hand sanitizer and ice scoops, who was forced by a health inspector to shut down her little experience- and character-building, money-making enterprise at an art fair for want of a $120 temporary restaurant (!) license, or face a $500 fine. And setting up shop on your front lawn is no escape. State preserve us from unsanitary lemonade preparation!