Last November, Canyon residents voted in favor of the legal sale of alcohol within city limits.

The town had been dry for several years, but with a majority vote, that changed.

Canyon voters actually voted in favor of not only the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption, but also the legal sale of mixed beverages in restaurants. Many restaurants and convenience stores in Canyon are now serving beer and wine, and some will likely begin to serve liquor in the coming months.

Although it is more difficult and expensive to obtain a license to sell mixed drinks than it is to sell beer and wine, both numbers are expected to increase this year.

With the increasing availability of alcohol, there were some concerns. Many citizens of the city of Canyon were opposed to the legal sale of alcohol for various reasons.

Some religious groups protested for fear that it would somehow contribute to negativity. Some residents shared fears of increased crime rates.

Others were worried about how legal alcohol sales would affect the campus of West Texas A&M University, as well. But there have been few negative reports of incidents that involve alcohol.

“I don’t have any official statistics on alcohol crimes or anything like that,” Zach Nethery, Sergeant of the University Police Department, said. “However, I have not gotten the impression that it has caused an increase of crime on campus. Without numbers, in my opinion, I don’t believe we have seen a spike in anything. I know there were some predictions when this was being passed that we would possibly be seeing more numbers on campus, but it doesn’t seem to have caused any problems.”

Even some students have expressed concern about the relative ease of getting alcohol with its increased availability.

“It’s a benefit for the local economy, but could be negative for students as it may provide further distraction from studies,” Alex Gonzalez, senior Corporate Communications major, said. “I don’t really see a negative effect on campus. I just worry that a greater number of students will now partake in drinking more frequently as a result of the proximity of sales.”

“As far as anything detrimental, it’s not there,” Randy Criswell, Canyon city manager, said. “People are always afraid that they’re going to see horrible, massive increases in alcohol-related crime, domestic violence and other problems. We knew these things weren’t going to happen, but people always think that it will.”

It seems that the local economy might have actually improved dramatically as a result of alcohol sales in Canyon.

“It’s difficult to predict sales tax for a local economy,” Criswell said. “There is absolutely no way to determine it. The amount of sales tax that we received in April, which would have been collected in February, was significantly higher than it was at this time last year. We have seen a substantial increase over the previous months. It might be because businesses are really on-board with it, and I would like to see this increasing trend continue. That would be wonderful as it brings in money we could definitely put to good use.”