 Higher alcohol prices urged to cut abuseHealth | 208364 hits | Nov 27 1:41 pm | Posted by: Zipperfish  Alcohol prices should be raised to reduce the problems of excessive drinking, policy researchers recommend.Commentsview comments in forum You need to be a member of CKA and be logged into the site, to comment on news. |
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Son: So, Dad, does this mean that you'll be drinking less?
Dad: No, son, it means you'll be eating less.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse released three reports Tuesday on alcohol use, sales and price policies with recommendations to deter risky, excessive drinking and its consequences.
The findings were for the drinking population aged 15 and older. They included:
About 26 per cent, or five million people, drink excessively every month.
The heaviest drinkers in the country, about 20 per cent of the drinking population, drank about 70 per cent of the alcohol sold in 2004.
Risky drinking costs $14.6 billion each year, including for health care and policing violence.
Report author Gerald Thomas, senior research and policy analyst with the centre, suggested that governments base alcohol pricing policies on three principles:
Index alcohol prices to inflation.
Base prices, including minimum prices, on alcohol content to create incentives for lower strength products and discourage higher strength products.
Focus on minimum prices to remove the inexpensive sources of alcohol favoured by young adults and other high risk drinkers.
Setting minimum prices per standard drinks for bars and liquor stores could apply universally, the authors suggested.
Targeting regular drinkers alone won�t address all sources of alcohol-related harms since much of the harm comes from the relatively large number of drinkers showing risky drinking only occasionally, Thomas said.
The reports compared pricing policies in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.
Most jurisdictions in Canada incorporate some of the principles, such as increasing prices on fortified wines with higher alcohol content, but none applies all three, according to the pricing report.
When researchers in B.C. looked at changes to the province�s minimum alcohol prices over 20 years, they estimated that a 10 per cent increase in minimum prices reduced consumption of all alcoholic drinks combined by 3.4 per cent.
Elsewhere, the U.K. Home Office said it will introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol.
I'd like to introduce you this gentleman, his name is Al Capone.
Nanny state old chap.
That's it! Just shut the front door. Gives my head a shake.
Is that why the price of gas is so high?
^ That!
I'm sure the Mohawk Nation will deeply appreciate the new business opportunities presented by the higher alcohol taxes.
Legalize pot and take the sting out of a $50 bottle of Barefoot Merlot.
Best comment on the CBC comments:
Son: So, Dad, does this mean that you'll be drinking less?
Dad: No, son, it means you'll be eating less.
Sounds about right.
For people that abuse booze there's only three things that make them quit.
1) Death
2) Rock bottom
3) Tired of being sick and tired.
Raising prices by a minor amount ain't going to do shit when it comes to reducing alcohol abuse.
I'm sure the Mohawk Nation will deeply appreciate the new business opportunities presented by the higher alcohol taxes.
Legalize pot and take the sting out of a $50 bottle of Barefoot Merlot.
the gov't always gets its money.
I also believe that smoking is a good model of the elasticity of addictive controlled substances and the impact that raising their prices will have on their consumption, as it is far more highly addictive than alcohol.
I don't think anyone can argue that the consumption any product, including heroin, crack, crystal meth, are totally inelastic. At the very least if if all disposable income is being spent on alcohol, there will be less consumed based on price per volume.
That being said, I do also think that this will have an overall negative impact on the economy as less people will be inclined to go out to bars or dinner when wine and beer is too expensive, and tourism would be significantly impacted since people travelling often like to enjoy the occasional drink.