Readers speak: CT consumes nearly 50 million nip bottle a year. That’s nothing to celebrate.

Every October and April we read about the semi-annual celebration of how many nips have been purchased in Connecticut.

For the past six months, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut are celebrating the consumption of 49.8 million nips. That’s almost 14 nips per state resident, or roughly 28 per person over the age of 21. And remember—that’s just for half the year.

Do you know who isn’t celebrating? The families, loved ones, friends, and colleagues of those killed or injured by impaired drivers. According the the Connecticut Department of Transportation, 140 people were killed by impaired drivers in 2022 (last data available); that’s one-third of all state road deaths that year. I’ll bet our first responders and ER staffs also aren’t celebrating.

Given that empty nips can easily be found on roadsides and even in the liquor store parking lots, it is clear that the largest share of those nips are consumed by people who are driving on our roads. Why are we celebrating making it easy for people to drive buzzed or impaired?

So I implore journalists who report on this semi-annual celebration of consumption to dig deeper into the story and shed light on the dark side of nip sales. The nickel-a-nip program is supposed to pay towns to aid in clean up of discarded nips. So let’s find out: How do the stops and arrests for DUI correlate with nip sales (at town or county level)?

Let’s learn more about the true costs of our celebration of nip sales, and commit to safer roads for all. Your life, or a loved one’s, may be made better by this.

Lawrence Waksman, South Windsor

https://www.courant.com/2025/10/28/readers-speak-ct-consumes-nearly-50-million-nip-bottle-a-year-thats-nothing-to-celebrate/