(RALEIGH) -- A legislative panel studying changes to the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control system is getting an earful from some officials on the local level who want to keep liquor sales the way they are. Former ABC board member from Wake County, Gary Pendleton, said it is a moral duty to keep our liquor system under state control.

"Morally what's wrong with it is it's next to impossible to enforce," Pendleton. He said that as a conservative Republican he is in favor of privatizing nearly everything, but not the North Carolina ABC system. He again said, "It is a moral issue."

Among the options the legislative group is expected to consider is privatizing all or part of the state's system for liquor sales, which has remained largely unchanged since the end of Prohibition.