Recent updates to laws prohibiting alcohol sales to intoxicated persons (SIP): How can SIP laws become an effective enforcement tool?

Service and sales practices at alcohol retail establishments, particularly practices relating to service of intoxicated persons (SIP), play a key role in addressing the risk of injury and other harms that arise from excessive alcohol consumption. Research shows that drinking in bars and restaurants is strongly associated with binge drinking and alcohol-impaired driving that can lead to serious public health harms including violent incidents at those establishments and alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. The data suggest that the enforcement of well-designed SIP laws would provide significant public health and safety benefits. Despite its promise, little attention has been given to this prevention strategy. This presentation discusses the most recent research available on SIP laws in the 50 States and the District of Columbia, as of January 2011 and highlights changes that have been made to SIP laws since 2007. It also presents five legal, research-based best practices for SIP regulation and enforcement and identifies the extent to which the States comply with those best practices. The presentation concludes by noting that there is substantial room for improvement in the scope and reach of current SIP laws to promote public health goals and providing recommendations for next steps in terms of implementation, evaluation and research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Community Guide reviewed the available research and concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend SIP enforcement as a best-practices prevention strategy. This research represents the first step in addressing this gap in the research literature.