By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I encourage the Los Alamos Community to ignore the comments of the Rio Grande Foundation that the Post published Jan. 13 and focus instead on the facts and evidence about reducing alcohol-related harms in New Mexico.

First, New Mexico leads the nation in alcohol-related deaths, with a rate of such deaths that is six times the rate of the state with the lowest rate. In addition, New Mexico’s high rate of alcohol-related deaths has gone on for many years.

Second, there is consistent evidence within the US and across countries that higher alcohol taxes and higher alcohol prices are associated with reductions in both excessive alcohol consumption and related harms. Moreover, outside of countries which essentially prohibit alcohol consumption, it appears that no country has been able to reduce excess alcohol consumption and related morbidity and mortality, without raising taxes on alcohol. This is analogous to the impact of increased taxes on tobacco consumption and should not surprise us.

Also similar to tobacco, taxes are only one necessary part of a package of policies that can most effectively reduce the harms of alcohol, including: reducing points and hours of sale; reducing sales to minors; limiting advertising; education about the harms of alcohol; treatment programs; and enforcement of drunk driving laws.

The Governor and legislature say that they will address public safety and interpersonal violence during this legislative session. Addressing alcohol consumption is an absolutely necessary condition to their achieving the goal of reducing violence. This highlights the importance of the legislature’s acting in an evidence-based way on alcohol in this session.

I continue to appreciate the many thoughtful comments that people made when alcohol taxes were discussed locally last year. However, at a population level, the data and evidence are exquisitely clear that raising alcohol prices through taxes is a necessary part of policies to reduce the harms of alcohol.