www.alkoholpolitik.ch

San Francisco Day of Action, SF City Hall Rally. Join labor, youth, firefighters, treatment, prevention, and health-care providers on Wednesday, August 4 at 10:00 a.m. on the Polk Street steps of San Francisco City Hall for a press conference and rally in support of the City’s proposed Charge for Harm ordinance. This local precedent-setting measure seeks to recover an estimated $17.7 million in annual alcohol-related costs from a fee that would be assessed to alcohol wholesalers and others. (Source: Marin Institute, 7/29/10)

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson ordered the state’s alcohol regulation agency to delay enforcing a decades old — but largely ignored — law that requires bars to price drinks according to alcohol content.
The law would effectively end all specials that make drinks cheaper by volume — mandating that a 32-ounce beer cost twice as much as a 16-ounce beer, for example. (Source: Join Together, 7/23/10)

The first question on the November’s ballot will be an up or down vote on repeal of the state’s alcohol sales tax, which was first instated in 2009.
The third question on the ballot gives voters the option of reducing state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent.
The alcohol tax helps pay for addiction programs, but detractors claim it makes the state less competitive with nearby, tax-free New Hampshire. (Source: Join Together, 7/21/10)

„A health advocacy group is hoping to use this year’s election to pressure General Assembly members into passing a ‚dime a drink‘ liquor tax increase to help pay for health care for the disabled and poor. Maryland Citizens‘ Health Initiative sent out letters Monday to all candidates running for the state Senate or House of Delegates, urging them to sign a pledge supporting the tax. The group said they plan to direct voters to call candidates who don’t respond to the pledge. The letter wasn’t sent to gubernatorial candidates Gov. Martin O’Malley or his Republican challenger, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.“ (Source: Medical News Today, 7/21/10)

The greatest and most costly failure of the medical profession and public health community is their failure to explain to the American people that addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a disease.
Against the scientific knowledge we now have, physicians’ refusal to give alcohol- and other drug-addicted patients the same medical care and attention they provide individuals with other chronic illnesses like hypertension and diabetes is inconsistent with their Hippocratic oath to “prescribe regimen for the good of my patients…and never to do harm to anyone.” The harm due to this long term failure of the medical profession and public health community is measured in untold lives lost and ruined and the incalculable human misery of families, friends and colleagues of alcoholics and drug addicts. (Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 7/19/10)

Price levels for food, beverages and tobacco across the European market differ significantly. Comparative price levels in 37 European countries for 2009.
Price levels for food, beverages and tobacco among the EU Member States vary considerably. In
2009, the prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages in Poland were 64% of the EU average, while
in Denmark they were 139%. Alcohol was priced in Finland at 170% of the EU average, but at 70%
in Romania. For tobacco the highest prices were observed in Ireland (217% of the EU average),
while the lowest were recorded in Bulgaria (46%). Source: Eurocare Newsletter June-July 2010) eurostat 30/2010 Comment: Switzerland and Norway are on top.

28 June 2010, Brussels. In 2004, the Commission produced a report which recommended that the minimum rates of duty laid down in 1992 should be revalorised to take account of the inflation that has occurred since then (COM(2004) 223 final).
The present report has been prepared by the London School of Economics and it analyses whether the current tax system is causing distortions of the internal market and whether adaptations would be appropriate. Full text of the study (pdf 2.45 Mb) (2.45 Mb) Executive summary (pdf 186 Kb) (186 Kb) (Source: Eurocare Newsletter June-July 2010)

Newsletter online with important information from Europe and the European Union.

To support a proposed new local fee on alcohol sales, the San Francisco Controller’s office commissioned a „nexus study“ to analyze the actual costs incurred by the city from alcohol use. Titled, The Cost of Alcohol to San Francisco – Analyses Supporting an Alcohol Mitigation Fee, the recently-released study found $17.7 million in direct unreimbursed expenses for alcohol-related harm. These expenses were incurred by community behavioral health services, fire department emergency medical transport, San Francisco General Hospital, and the Sheriff’s department. Because the study only considered health costs, excluding crime and other costs, $17.7 million is a very conservative amount. (Source: Marin Institute, 7/12/10)

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan’s minimum-pricing policy on high-alcohol beverages has resulted in a decline in public intoxication as well as lower sales of potent products, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported July 6.
The province is among a handful of governments worldwide to set minimum prices based on alcohol content. The policy has caused the prices of 36 targeted products to rise by up to 40 percent.
Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority officials said that public drunkenness and calls to police have declined in the areas where high-alcohol products are consumed most. (Source: Join Together, 7/7/10)