SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA (September 24, 2014) – Researchers at Alcohol Justice have received news that accounts of two long-term projects have been published in a special alcohol policy issue of World Medical and Health Policy. "Optimal U.S. State Alcohol Excise Taxes to Recover Government Cost of Excessive Consumption" by Holley Shafer, and "Alcohol Ads on Public Transit: Policies From Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States" by Sarah Mart and Jessica Blakemore, are now available.
Shafer's study measures the abysmal failure of state governments to raise additional taxes to compensate for direct government and societal costs of alcohol-related health care, crime prevention, productivity loss, criminal justice, and property damage. Excessive alcohol consumption causes and estimated $223 billion in economic harm annually in the United States with $94 billion in direct cost to federal, state, and local governments.
Mart & Blakemore studied the presence and types of alcohol advertising policies for public transit in major metropolitan areas in the United States. They analyzed these policies to find whether they ban or allow alcohol ads on public transit. Then they looked at actual ad ban language to categorize its location in agency policy, contract requirements, or government policy.
Click the following links to read Alcohol Justice fact sheets about increasing alcohol taxes and out-of-home alcohol advertising.