The Washington State Liquor Control Board today approved a ban on 29 brands of fortified wine and beer for Seattle’s “alcohol-impact areas.”

The list of banned beverages includes cheap malt liquors, including Steel Reserve, Olde English 800 and Colt 45, and fortified wines such as Cisco and Thunderbird. Supporters of the ban say those products are favored by homeless alcoholics who cause problems in city neighborhoods.

I have been reading about this for months but I really didn’t think that it would pass. Sure, Seattlites are well-known for our culinary excellence and microbrews galore but this really border lines on poor-man discrimination. I mean, do they really think that taking the cheap booze off the shelf is going to stop an alcoholic from buying something else or from going to a different neighborhood to buy their preferred skanky drank?

What do you think?
Here’s the full list of banned beverages…

Beer and Malt Products
Bull Ice 8%
Busch Ice 5.9%
Colt 45 Ice 6.1%
Colt 45 Malt Liquor 6.4 %
Hurricane Ice Malt Liquor 7.5%
Keystone Ice 5.9%
Lucky Ice Ale Premium 6.1%
Mickey’s Iced Brewed Ale 5.8%
Mickey’s Malt Liquor 5.6%
Miller High Life Ice 5.9%
Milwaukee’s Best Ice 5.9%
Milwaukee’s Best Premium Ice Beer 5.9%
Natural Ice 5.6%
Old Milwaukee Ice 5.9%
Olde English “800″ 7.5%
Pabst Ice 4.8%
Rainier Ale 7.3%
Red Bull Malt Liquor 5.5%
Red Dog 4.9%
Schmidt Ice 5.8%
Special 800 Reserve 6.0%
St. Ide’s Liquor and Special Brews 7.3%
Steel Reserve (Five different types – 8.1% for four types, 5.5% for one type)

“Wine” Products
Cisco 18.0%
Gino’s Premium Blend 14.0%
MD 20/20 13.5%
Night Train Express 17.0%
Richard’s Wild Irish Rose 13.9%
Thunderbird 18.0%