Because I live in Pennsylvania, I sometimes write about some of the state laws here. More often than not, it turns out that I think the state law is wrong. And more often than not, I also think those laws are also stupid.

Today’s rant is about a stupid law and an additional stupid law that just adds additional stupidity onto the consequences of the first. But let me explain before you are overwhelmed with the word stupid. In case you are interested, here are my comments on Pennyslvania. And not all are about stupid laws. Every now and then I talk about things I like here.

Today’s newspaper has a story about the seizure and scheduled destruction of a wine collection. It seems a lawyer in a town very near here build this collection by buying wine out-of-state and bringing it into Pennsylvania.

Sometimes he used the internet and had the non-state-sanctioned wines shipped to his home in Pennsylvania. And sometimes he resold the wine. He claims it was at cost and just to a limited group but it was still another violation of Pennsylvania liquor laws.

As far as I know it is not illegal to buy alcoholic beverages elsewhere but the crime is bringing alcoholic beverages into Pennsylvania.

Although the law-breaker was only sentenced to probation and community service, the police still have the wine and plan to destroy it. There are over 2000 bottles of wine and the estimated value is S125,000.

One can imagine there are many other uses of this wine. Maybe it will not be given back to the owner because, after all, he did violate our liquor laws. The law may be our stupid liquor law but it still is a state law.

But perhaps the illegal wine could be used to raise money. I’m sure several charities would be interested in having an auction that could raise thousands of dollars. If the state does not want to give the seized wine to charity perhaps it could be sold to raise money for some activity that state has an interest in.

Maybe the money could go toward funding Philadelphia public schools since they have a budget shortfall that the state is involved with. Maybe the money could fund programs in local schools that have been cut. Or maybe the money could be used to fund something having to do with alcohol abuse.

But unless the law is changed this cannot happen. The problem is another stupid liquor law. According to the law, seized liquor must be destroyed.

I think the whole episode is stupid but the stupidity is compounded by a second law that prevents the seized property from being put to good use.