Maine OUIs Tracking Upward with Popularity of Nip Bottles

Maine liquor regulators say they are seeing a correlation between the 'nip' alcohol bottles and an increase in drunken driving arrests.

According to the Associated Press, Maine saw a steady decline in convictions for operating under the influence from 2006 through 2014, when drunken driving convictions plunged 38 percent. But they've begun climbing again, growing 8 percent to 3,735 convictions from 2015 to 2016.

The AP said the Sun Journal reported that the director of the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations declared the correlation to be "disturbing."  Gregory Mineo said nips can be consumed in a "single swig" and tossed out a vehicle's window so a motorist can avoid getting caught with an open container.

Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage has taken steps to ban the sale of nip-size liquor bottles after lawmakers passed the bottle-deposit law, according to AP.