# UK: Why can't meths be sold on Sundays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566 "2004-06-15T23:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/1 "2004-06-15T23:28:25Z")
In B&Q today, I noticed a sign indicating that they are forbidden from selling methalated spirits on Sundays. Nothing else, just meths. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/2 "2004-06-15T23:34:13Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > In B&Q today, I noticed a sign indicating that they are forbidden from selling methalated spirits on Sundays. Nothing else, just meths. Why? I would assume it’s to do with the “no selling of alcohol on Sundays” rule in some parts … even for an innocent tipple like meths. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/3 "2004-06-15T23:37:25Z")
Nope, no such law would be tolerated in these parts 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/4 "2004-06-16T00:53:12Z")
Looks like as of February 27, 2004, they can. [The Regulatory Reform (Sunday Trading) Order 2004](http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20040470.htm) repealed Section 26 of the Revenue Act 1889 (prohibition of sale of methylated spirits on Sunday). Maybe you should let B&Q know. Just an old [Blue Law](http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/bluelaws.htm) finally being taken off the books. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/5 "2004-06-16T01:01:14Z")
Heh heh, would that qualify me as an awkward customer? I might go to buy some this Sunday, just for the hell of it…I wonder if we’re now also allowed to buy a Bible on Sundays? We’re gonna have one hell of a party… Mind you, the answer to why it was prohibited in the first place remains elusive… ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/6 "2004-06-16T22:42:22Z")
O.K., here you go… > [@](#): > > Section 26 of the 1889 Act formed part of the control system that applied to licensed retailers of methylated spirits. It was introduced to address a problem of people purchasing and drinking methylated spirits on a day when dutiable alcoholic liquors were not readily available. Dutiable alcoholic liquor is now widely available to purchase on a Sunday. People who couldn’t get a beer on Sunday were buying methylated spirits and drinking them instead (can’t have been very healthy or tasted very good), so they were banned as well. Since alcohol is now available on Sunday, the ban is no longer necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/7 "2004-06-16T23:05:44Z")
Help an ignorant Yank out on this…What is a methylated spirit? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/8 "2004-06-16T23:21:03Z")
Methylated spirits = denatured alcohol. Damn yanks 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/9 "2004-06-16T23:22:51Z")
It’s alcohol for industrial use as, I dunno, fuel or for cleaning or something. If you drink it regularly, you die. It has methanol in it, not ethanol, which is what alcoholic drinks have. People call it “meths”. You’ll often hear “have you been at the meths again?” if someone starts talking rubbish. SO I suppose it should be “methylated spirit” not “spirits” but everybody says “spirits” for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/10 "2004-06-16T23:24:13Z")
Oh, and many thanks to **SpoilerVirgin** for the info 🙂 Now to ask B&Q if they have a major problem with tramps driving round the A14 just to buy their meths… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/11 "2004-06-17T10:13:34Z")
No-one has mentioned yet, meths has an attractive purple colouring making it useful in cocktails. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/12 "2004-06-17T10:27:27Z")
> [@Ross](#): > > It has methanol in it, not ethanol, which is what alcoholic drinks have. Not exactly true: meths is mostly ethanol, but has been denatured by the _addition_ of methanol. Oh, and pyridine. Tasty. ([Cite](http://www.wordreference.com/definition/methylated%20spirits.htm)) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/13 "2004-06-17T14:34:05Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > People who couldn’t get a beer on Sunday were buying methylated spirits and drinking them instead . . . The reason the stuff is methylated to start with is to make it undrinakable–poison. People actually drink that sh\*t on _purpose_? Check out this recent news story from Iran. [http://www.iranmania.com/news/150604h.asp](http://www.iranmania.com/news/150604h.asp) ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/14 "2004-06-17T21:35:39Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > The reason the stuff is methylated to start with is to make it undrinakable–poison. People actually drink that sh\*t on _purpose_? While I was researching methylated spirits, I kept thinking about Kitty Dukakis (for those not in the U.S., she was the wife of 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis). She was an alcoholic who was hospitalized for drinking rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol is denatured and poisonous, but when you are an alcoholic and the craving is that bad, you go for whatever is available. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/15 "2004-06-18T00:26:08Z")
I’ve long been aware of that practice (and the story, since I lived in Massachusetts at the time), but it’s always puzzled me a bit. Rubbing alcohol is _isopropyl_ alcohol, not ethanol (or methanol). As far as I know, it would make you very sick, and might make you slightly dizzy, but wouldn’t give you an alcohol “buzz” or stop the DTs. Unfortunately, I’ve never thought to ask a patient why they do this, even the repeat customers (which is not terribly uncommon). Desperation, I can understand, but why would desperation drive you to do something that you _know_ is unrelated. It’d be like stealing someone’s tires, because you’re out of gas. I’ve never read a good explanation of this in my texts. Anyone have the Straight Dope? I’m hoping that there might be a more concrete answer. For example, alcoholics were once known to deliberately ingest propylene glycol (antifreeze) because part of the treatment involved drinking large amounts of ethanol (which competes for an enzyme that breaks the anitfreeze down to toxic byproducts). An alcoholic who showed up in an ER (usually on Sunday,when local liquor stores weren’t open) with ethylene glycol ingestion got a free bender at state expense. [I’m sure this wasn’t KItty Dukakis’ motive, since she’d have been mortified at the publicity] ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-why-cant-meths-be-sold-on-sundays/250566/16 "2004-06-18T18:34:43Z")
IIRC methylated spirits is dyed purple and has an additive that make it smell (and presumably taste) foul so people wouldn’t mix it up with other fluids, eg water. But people still drink it.