Study Reveals That Raising Alcohol Prices Could Lead to a Drop in DUI Fatalities

A recent study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has revealed that higher taxes on alcohol may help to cut down on the number of alcohol related fatalities. Using information collected from death certificates, Dr. Alexander Wagenaar, a professor at the University of Florida's Department of Epidemiology and Health Policy Research and his research team compiled a list of the number of deaths caused by alcohol and number of deaths linked to alcohol in Alaska between 1976 and 2004.

Alcohol related deaths in Alaska were compared with data from other states in order to control for common nationwide factors like population growth and advanced medical care. From this data comparison, researchers found twenty three fewer deaths per year after a 1983 alcohol tax hike and twenty one fewer deaths per year after a 2002 tax increase.

Alaska was chosen as the sample state for the study because of Alaska's large alcohol tax increase in 2002. Despite the fact that Alaska's general population is composed of fewer than one million people, researchers believe that the state is comparable to the rest of the nation in terms of epidemiological trends. Wagenaar supported his research team's decision to focus on drinking statistics from Alaska, stating, "There's no reason to think the experience in Alaska would be different than anywhere else. The study looks at the responsiveness of drinking."

However, Wagenaar and his group of researchers are not the only ones investigating this topic. A similar study was recently conducted in Finland, where researchers examined the relationship between alcohol taxes and alcohol related deaths. Finland is an ideal country to test this link in, because, for many years, Finland maintained a very high tax rate on alcohol. However, in 2004, the Finnish government lowered the alcohol tax between thirty three and forty four percent in order to maintain a high level of domestic alcohol sales.

Following this drastic tax decrease, alcohol consumption levels increased nearly fifty percent from the previous year. Finnish researchers concluded, "Taxation has indeed been found to be the most cost-effective measure in reducing alcohol consumption. Raising alcohol tax level has low costs and is effective in reducing alcohol consumption and thus alcohol-related harms." Researchers also determined that the number of drunk and disorderly conduct arrests increased by over ten percent following the tax decrease.

Wagenaar and his researchers have linked their evidence to a broader, more general trend which was also observed following increases in taxes on tobacco. According to Wagenaar, "When the excise tax on tobacco went up, consumption went down and the diseases associated with tobacco also went down. Now, with the current study, we're finding the same thing for alcohol. Simply adjusting taxes has quite a noticeable rate on alcohol deaths. They parallel each other quite a bit."

In addition to the public health implications of raising alcohol taxes, alcohol excise taxes could also be used to benefit the flailing economy, "Given state budgets are in the toilet bowl, it's an available source of revenue that has not been looked to for a very long time. The tax increases are long overdue. The product doesn't pay its way in covering economic and social costs associated with its use."

However, while researchers and state legislators are publicizing the positive effects an increase in alcohol tax would have, the American Beverage Licensees (ABL), who represent retailers of beer, wine, and spirits, have voiced their strong opposition to the proposed tax increase. According to the Executive Director of the American Beverage Licensees, Harry Wiles, "Based on historical evidence, raising taxes on alcohol beverages would have a highly negative impact on the economy. Increasing alcohol taxes could lead diminishing returns for the government should responsible, moderate consumers decrease their consumption." It is the belief of the alcohol industry that raising taxes would penalize the responsible social drinkers, not the alcohol abusers, who most likely would not be deterred by an increase in the price of alcohol.

Ultimately, efforts to raise taxes on alcohol have been deemed neo-Prohibitionist by both the alcohol industry and by mainstream America, despite the availability of evidence which reveals that increasing alcohol taxes may be an effective means of driving down the number of driving under the influence and alcohol related accidents and fatalities. George Hacker, Director of Alcohol Policies Project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, argued that, "The legacy of Prohibition leaves sour tastes about doing anything about curbing alcohol use. It conjures images of Prohibition. The industry stokes it as much as it can. The industry uses the imagery and metaphor of freedom and civil right, almost like it is a civil right to drink, given it was once prohibited."

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