As their money slides across the bar, bar owner Diane Jovick-Kuntz is happy, too. Without us, you might not have a police or a fire department. Alcohol is an industry, and a big one in Montana. There's no good estimate on the dollar volume of wine sold in the state since the Revenue Department taxes on volume, not sales. The Montana Bar is just one of 105 drinking establishments in Great Falls.
Friends get together in the local bar.
The state health department reported recently that only 2.3 percent of the Montanans it surveyed had never taken a drink. The survey found that 78 percent of the respondents have consumed alcohol in the past year. More than 58 percent of those surveyed said they have used alcohol in the past month. That puts Montana above the national average. Sixteen percent of Americans say they have never used alcohol.