Health and other public concerns have generated detailed Federal and state regulation of the sale and possession of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and a wide range of other "controlled substances." The distinctive history of Prohibition, repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives particular complexity to the mix of Federal and state law governing alcohol.

Absent any specific regulation, these substances are treated like all other forms of personal property. However, the general rights of property are subject to so-called "police power" regulations of the state, local, and federal governments.

The regulation of alcohol is generally focused on "intoxicating beverages" with the exact definition of "intoxicating" varying from statute to statute. In many jurisdictions, it has been held that the list of liquors subject to regulatory or prohibitive enactments, particularly when such a list is followed by an expression akin to "or other intoxicating liquors" must be intoxicating in fact. Many statutes either refer to "intoxicating liquors" generally, or prescribe an alcoholic percentage cut off. In Mississippi, it has been held that the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquor does not apply to a beverage containing less than two tenths of one percent (0.2%) of alcohol.