A funny thing happened on the way to examining "trends in the magnitude and frequency of changes in state specific excise taxes [on alcohol] to document their erosion," by a trio of public health advocates in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In the end, Dr. Tim Naimi, who heads up an expert committee advising the US government on dietary guidelines, and his colleagues Jason Blanchette and Craig Ross at the Boston University School of Public Health, simply advocate for higher taxes, and request their advocacy be made easier. Reviewing all excise tax changes from 1933 thru 2018, they document that taxes generally rose through 1970. But by 2018, "alcohol taxes had declined 66%, 71%, and 70% respectively, compared to their inception values" after Prohibition. Tax increases became fewer and smaller after 1970 and inflation ate up 2/3 of the value. At the same time, while industry advocates got more powerful and better at lobbying against increases, decreases were even rarer and were generally the result of sunset clauses or a return to the level before the most recent increase. Then too, as alcohol taxes decreased as a percentage of state budgets, politicians may have become "less inclined to take notice" of the erosion in their value, especially if other tax revenues, (sales taxes, income taxes) replaced the dollars.

Drinking guidelines are on the minds of many these days, as noted above. A new study from Canada aimed in part to determine whether guidelines there, up to 10 drinks/week for women, 15 for men, slightly higher than in US (currently), should be revised downward. Using alcohol-attributable death and hospitalization rates in British Columbia, researchers determined that even drinkers following the guidelines "are not insulated from harm." Some die and/or are hospitalized due to alcohol-related conditions. And after a great deal of data manipulation, the authors come to the conclusion that "guidelines of around one drink per day may be appropriate for high-income countries." Ironically, their findings also suggest that the limit should be slightly higher for women than for men.

Even while skepticism grows among many public health advocates about the benefits of moderate drinking, yet another study surfaced that linked moderate drinking, when included with three other healthy lifestyle factors, to additional "disease-free" years among middle-aged and older adults. Reviewing the results of 12 European studies including over 116,000 adults, followed for an average 12.5 years, the findings linked body mass index under 25, non-smoking, physical activity and moderate drinking to as much as 10 additional years free of chronic diseases including: type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma and pulmonary disease.

As noted above, some public health advocates fear drinkers will adopt heavier consumption habits as a response to COVID-19, as they watch pantry-loading of alcohol by consumers. These bad habits may be exacerbated, they further suggest, as government officials deem alcohol as "essential" business and ease access via pick-up/delivery and other measures. In the UK, Ian Hamilton, an addiction/mental health professor at the University of York, suggested: "Rather than risk compromising our health, this is a great opportunity to extend Dry January to 'Dry Covid'" (See April 10 AII Update). That's clearly not happening broadly. And so far, there's been no evidence that people are drinking any more than pre-crisis.

Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, public health advocates were mostly silent. But longtime advocate-researcher David Jernigan of Boston University School of Public Health surfaced in The Hill article noted above with a predictable warning: "The biggest problem is everything's happening with no eye on the public health impact of alcohol use." Though stores limit toilet paper purchases, there were no caps on alcohol buys, he complained. He fears drinking patterns adopted by consumers during the crisis will "put them in trouble over time."

At a time when putting aside policy differences and working together to defeat a common threat has emerged as such a critical strategy, it's especially appropriate to mark the passing of Marcus Grant, who died late last year. AII has been remiss in not reporting this earlier.

Nearly two years after Scotland adopted a 50p minimum price per unit of alcohol, Wales has done the same, and advocate-researchers at Sheffield University continue to push England to follow suit. The measure "has been dubbed the Strongbow Tax," explains The Western Mail, since "it will have the biggest impact on the price of strong but cheap beer and cider, some of which will double in price."

Just as two studies linking state alcohol control policy environments, based on the Alcohol Policy Scale (APS), with impaired driving and cancer risks emerged (see above), Boston University School of Public Health's Tim Naimi and his "team" had a more general view of APS published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Rather than link policy environment to specific alcohol-related problems or drinking rates, the authors ranked the 50 states by their APS score in 2018, identified score changes by state since 1999, makes some specific observations and, most of all, opined that "all states have room for substantial increases in the restrictiveness of their alcohol policies, particularly for those targeting excessive drinking."