Pricey booze saves lives.
November 14th, 2008
Cheap Drunk
Chris Rock jokes that the best way to reduce gun-related deaths is to make bullets so expensive, potential offenders would think twice about using them. That seems to be the logic underlying the results of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study which found that increasing alcohol taxes reduced alcohol-related deaths.
This study tracked the relationship between changes in alcohol prices (as affected by increased excise taxes) and the incidence of “alcohol poisoning and alcoholic liver disease, and deaths linked to alcohol, such as cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis” in Alaska. It did not track alchol-related traffic fatalities.
I am not clear what percentage reduction the “23 fewer deaths per year after a 1983 tax hike and 21 fewer deaths per year after a 2002 increase” represent. The connection here, though, is between price and consumption and subsequent incidence of alcohol-related diseases which rises with increased consumption. The connection between price and consumption is supported by a Finnish study which showed a rise in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related arrests after the government of that country lowered its alcohol taxes.
As a physician, I am always aware of the health consequences of chronic overindulgence. As a wine commentator, I try to balance enthusiasm for wine and spirits with my medical knowledge of those consequences.
As a cynic, I have to call B.S. on the American Beverage Licensees who present the perfunctory “raising taxes on alcohol beverages would have a highly negative impact on the economy” argument. An increased excise tax on booze will no more break our economy than the one put on cigarettes did. Besides, any health problem has its own impact on society and its economy. The reduction of alcohol-related diseases and deaths translates into a reduced financial burden on a society.
Having been to many a pricey wine event and festival, I have seen imbibers of all socioeconomic strata go to excess, act like jackasses and fall over in the grass. I found myself wondering how many of these people would get in a car and drive home that night. Chances are that it would be the same percentage that stumble out of bars and pubs on any given night and drive home.
Why the Alaskan study did not focus on the relationship between alcohol-related traffic fatalities and booze price may just be a matter of study design. After all, the researchers were looking for effects of raising alcohol prices on gross consumption and long-term health effects. However, when one considers the average price of a coctail at a bar or pub and the incidence of traffic fatalities linked to consumption in bars, I suspect that no increase of excise taxes would significantly affect this statistic.
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