Prohibitionists Write Federal Alcohol Report

Ryan has pointed out that the attacks on alcohol are similar to those on cigarettes. This five year old article will show why. It is the same prohibition activist funding both attempts at government mandated social engineering.

“Estimates of the influence of beer excise taxes on drinking, heavy drinking and motor-vehicle fatality rates are not robust…and the true effects may be considerably smaller than suggested in the previous literature,” added Dr. Cook.

That underage drinkers aren’t terribly responsive to excise taxes (or even really price) shouldn’t be news to anyone. Underage drinkers don’t drink because they can afford it; they drink what they can afford.

The IOM panel’s recommendation is further undercut by its own acknowledgement that most underage drinkers get their alcohol “directly or indirectly from adults.”

How is an excise tax going to affect underage drinkers if they’re not buying it in the first place?

Excise taxes, in reality, would probably only impact adult consumers, perhaps causing some to their reduce purchases of alcoholic beverages– the real goal of the neo-prohibitionists.

Nine of the 12 “experts” on the IOM panel have ties to anti-alcohol activists, according to the Center for Consumer Freedom. Eight of the 12 have ties to the prohibitionist Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Between 1988-2002, RWJF gave more than $260 million to anti-alcohol causes. Over $60 million went to something called the “Consider Fighting Back” program, a goal of which is to “achieve measurable reduction in the overall use or demand for alcohol.”

Here’s a brief run-down of some of the IOM panel members

Marilyn Aguirre-Molina is a former RWJF senior program officer and current RWJF consultant who accused alcohol companies in 1990 of “killing us softly.”

Judy Cushing is the CEO of the RWJF-funded Oregon Partnership, which has run ads linking beer with heroin and other illegal drugs.

Panel chairman Richard J. Bonnie, previously chaired an RWJF-funded Committee.

Joel Grube is director of the Prevention Research Center at the anti-alcohol RWJF-funded Pacific Institute on Research & Evaluation.

So the IOM panel was seriously biased and its conclusions were likely determined before it began work. The panel’s recommendations are nothing more than RWJF prohibitionism dressed up in IOM clothing.

Perhaps worst of all, the IOM panel paid scant attention to efforts that may actually reduce underage drinking.