November 17, 2008
A new study has concluded that increased taxation on alcohol results in fewer deaths caused by or related to the effects of drinking, CNN reported Nov. 13.
Researchers focused on alcohol tax increases and mortality in the state of Alaska over a 28-year period. Deaths related to alcohol use dropped by 29 percent when taxes were raised in 1983; a further 11-percent reduction in alcohol-related deaths correspoded to a 2002 tax increase. The researchers included the number of deaths directly attributed to alcohol, like alcohol poisoning and alcoholic liver disease, and deaths linked to alcohol, like cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis.
"Increasing alcohol taxes saves lives; that's the bottom line," said Alexander Wagenaar, a professor at the University of Florida's Department of Epidemiology and Health Policy Research and the study's lead author. "There's no reason to think the experience in Alaska would be different than anywhere else."
The Alaska research supports a study from Finland that found that when the Finnish government lowered the tax on alcohol by 33 to 44 percent in an effort to protect domestic alcohol sales, consumption of alcohol increased by 50 percent, arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct increased by 11 percent, and deaths attributed to alcohol increased by 20 percent.
The alcohol industry is on record opposing any tax increase. "Based on historical evidence, raising taxes on alcohol beverages would have a highly negative impact on the economy," said Harry Wiles, executive director of the group American Beverage Licensees.
The study was published Nov. 13, 2008 in the online version of theAmerican Journal of Public Health.
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