Want to stop people from drinking too much? Forget earnest public service announcements. Just make alcohol more expensive.
A study released Thursday by the American Journal of Public Health found that when the tax rate on alcohol went up, deaths caused by drinking went down.
University of Florida epidemiologist Alexander Wagenaar and his colleagues compared Alaska’s alcohol tax rate over a nearly 30-year period with deaths due to alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis. They found that when the tax rate shot up, deaths plunged as much as 29 percent.
Their study suggests that raising the price of booze could be a more efficient way to address the deadly toll caused by drinking than building new clinics or starting new programs.
