This is just awesome. I had no idea that gas stations in Lithuania are able to sell booze! Who had the crazy idea that, with drunk driving being a serious problem in our society, it would be okay for a gas station to also sell booze!? That makes no sense to me at all. Sure, it’s convenient, but you have to consider that there are going to be a bunch of people who would take advantage of that for the wrong reasons.

Well, it seems that the Lithuanian government has smartened up a bit, and decided to tackle the problem. As of this past January, they have banned gas stations from selling booze at night. Yes, you read that correctly… they can still sell booze during the day… just not at night. According to StatoilHydro, the company running the gas stations, this is eating into their profits, and they’re not happy with that:

OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian oil and gas group StatoilHydro is trying to reverse a ban on the sale of alcohol at petrol stations in Lithuania, claiming it may lead to massive lay-offs, daily Dagens Naeringsliv said on Wednesday.

The ban on selling alcohol at night came into effect on January 1, after which the number of accidents linked to alcohol have dropped by 45 percent in January-May compared with the same period last year, the paper said, quoting police data.

- read more from the source -

Wow. I love that statistic though: a 45% drop in alcohol-related accidents. Those are some heartless bastards at StatoilHydro if they’re only concerned about their profit margin.

Thanks to Ted for letting me know about this insanity!