RALEIGH — Today, I’d like to offer my loudest praise for the 2003 session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

No, I’m not referring to the entertainment value of the House co-speakership contraption. I haven’t developed a sudden affection for job-killing tax increases. And I’m not enamored with the latest attempt to weaken our criminal laws, at least as they pertain to violent crimes.

Still, I am serious. Majorities of both chambers deserve credit for passing a sound, if modest, piece of legislation this year to liberalize regulations on restaurants selling mixed drinks.

Previously, such establishments were required to derive at least 40 percent of their total sales from food or non-alcoholic beverages. This rule was designed to distinguish between restaurants and bars, and to minimize the latter. The new rule, passed in legislation by the Senate last week and the House some weeks before, would establish a lower, 30 percent threshold.

As we are talking about responsible adults and a free society, I’d rather the minimum-sales number be zero. I’ll take what I can get, however. Individuals should have a right to buy and sell a legal product without infringement by the state. If customers get drunk and drive, they should be held fully responsible for their actions. The same goes for alcoholics and other problem drinkers. Indirect attempts to diffuse this responsibility across a range of other people, including vendors and fellow patrons, are bad enough in private life but especially indefensible in public policy.

It may seem like a small matter, which restaurants can sell what to whom, but it is emblematic of the larger issue of personal freedom. The surest route to excessive government is to deny that individuals are capable of making choices reasonably and responsibly. Yes, some people, given the freedom to choose, will choose unwisely. They must face the consequences of their failure. But most of us are willing and able to decide what we will consume, how much, and where. Our elected officials frankly have much more important things to do than trying to enforce archaic and illiberal regulations on restaurants.

I hear there’s a budget deficit. Thousands of public-school students can’t read at grade-level. Potholes abound. And lots of people out of work.

So thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for sobering up and doing the right thing. Here’s hoping it becomes a habit.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.