www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The UK government by Chancellor Alistair Darling has revealed its 2010 budget introducing measures to reduce and prevent alcohol-related harm. The Chancellor announced that alcohol duties will increase. The cider duty is to rise by 10% above inflation from midnight on Sunday. Wine, beer and spirit duties to rise by 2% from midnight on Sunday and further 2% rise planned for two years from 2014. This coincides with an article in Lancet, published 24th of March, shows that increasing the price level on alcohol are related to health benefit for all groups, and not only the heavy drinkers. The researches from University of Sheffield have found that general price increases were effective for reduction of consumption, health-care costs, and health-related quality of life losses in all population subgroups. Higher prices – better health! (Source: active’s newsletter April 2010, 4/16/10) Eurocare, 3/25/10

Eurocare organised succesful event on the Social Cost of Alcohol at the European Parliament.
See here the reports and presentations. (Source: Eurocare Newsletter February/March 2010)

On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, the California Assembly Health Committee will vote one more time on AB 1694 (Beall, San Jose), a bill to collect a reasonable 5 cents per drink fee from Big Alcohol, to fund California’s Alcohol-Related Services Program.
Passage of AB 1694 will provide $700+ million annually to the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. This new revenue will help ease the state’s deficit. The funds will also preserve existing treatment, prevention and recovery programs and create many new jobs in these areas to assure all California residents have access to critical alcohol-related harm mitigation services.
Californians need this because alcohol-related harm costs all of us $38.4 billion annually. Yet Big Alcohol pays virtually nothing to offset this harm.
Please let the new Chair of the Assembly Health Committee and five other key members know TODAY that they need to vote YES on AB 1694. It’s a vote that 85% percent of their constituents support.
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://action.marininstitute.org/link/target/mi/FffqB5RB.aspx

With colored-coded maps published online today, Marin Institute illustrates how inflation has decreased the value of low beer taxes, while state budget shortfalls have exploded.
“Amazingly, six states have not raised beer taxes in more than fifty years,” stated Marin Institute’s Research and Policy Director Michele Simon. “More than half the states have not raised beer excise taxes in at least two decades. Legislators are ignoring a lot of revenue their states could use right now.”
The alcohol industry watchdog calls their new maps tool Neglected and Outdated State Beer Taxes. It compares for each the number of years since last tax increase and the real value decline due to not keeping up with inflation. (Source: Marin Institute, 3/30/10)

Poll: Maryland Residents Support Alcohol Tax Increase to Support Treatment. A poll commissioned by the Maryland chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence found that 72 percent of state residents back a proposed 10-cent-per-drink tax if the revenues were used to pay for addiction treatment, services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, and healthcare for uninsured residents. (Source: Join Together, 3/5/10)

A measure that would have raised the alcohol tax in West Virginia and used the revenues to pay for addiction treatment and prevention programs has been killed. The Charleston Gazette reported Feb. 24 that the bill died in a legislative committee. However, lawmakers separately approved a pair of bills that would put a $300-million cap on Medicaid spending and dedicate any excess to paying for addiction services. Some estimates put the reserve amount at $60 million. The bill had called for raising the beer tax from 2 cents per bottle to 7 cents. (Source: Join Together, 3/1/10)

Dear Legislator,
I support AB 1694 — The Alcohol-Related Services Program It’s time for Big Alcohol to pay its fair share of California’s annual $38.4 billion in alcohol-related trauma care, hospitalization, treatment, prevention and criminal justice costs. (Source: Marin Institute, 2/20/10)

In this prolonged down economy, most states are looking at any and every idea that might produce revenue to cover budget shortfalls. In many control states, or alcohol beverage control states as they are sometimes called, the recession has led to a wave of sometimes heated discussions in state legislatures over whether to privatize the sale of alcohol in order to generate more revenue for the states. (Source: Marin Institute, 2/20/10)

Montana Supreme Court Justice and former Attorney General Mike McGrath has unveiled a ballot initiative that would earmark $5 million per year in state alcohol taxes to pay for addiction treatment, prevention, and drug/DUI courts. The Montana Alcohol Abuse and Drug-Free Plan was announced during McGrath’s recent appearance before the legislature’s Law & Justice Interim Committee. (Source: Join Together, 2/12/10)

In Denmark people drank less alcohol in 2009 than the previous year – the first drop for several years. The latest figures for first three quarters of 2009 show a 20% decrease in the quantity of taxable alcohol reported sold across the board. And the average of 11.7 litres of pure alcohol bought per person for the year was 1.5 litres less than five years ago. The Danish Brewers‘ Association (Bryggeriforeningen) said that beer sales within the industry decreased by 8% last year compared to 2008. According to Statistics Denmark alcohol consumption had been gradually climbing for many years prior to 2009. (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 12.2.10) globalmalt.de, 9.2.10 Comment: Denmark still belongs to the European top consumers.