High Alcohol Taxes Reduces Deaths

A new study confirms what we have long suspected, that increasing alcohol taxes reduces alcohol-related deaths. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health, and found that an increase in alcohol taxes was followed by an immediate reduction in deaths due to diseases such as liver disease, oral or breast cancers, and alcohol poisoning. Raising taxes had, in fact, as much as two to four times the effect of other prevention methods such as campaigns and school programs. 

The study looked at two separate incidents where the tax on alcohol was raised in Alaska, one in 1983 an the other in 2002. Alcohol-related deaths were subsequently measured, and the researchers found a 29% decrease after 1983, and an 11% decrease after 2002. Moreover, they also found that the drop in alcohol-related deaths was maintained over the following years, showing that the effect was long-term. 

The study did not consider deaths due to alcohol-related car accidents, which I find disappointing. I would imagine that lower consumption of alcohol would also lead to fewer car accidents, in which case the benefit of tax increases would be even greater. 

So, I hope people in Norway stop whining about the country’s high tax on alcohol, and realize that it is for our own good.