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Raise Beer Tax to Reduce Teen Drinking
yahoo/reuters ^ | 9-9-03 | Maggie Fox

Posted on 09/10/2003 5:11:07 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan

Raise Beer Tax to Reduce Teen Drinking - Report

Tue Sep 9, 6:23 PM ET Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress and state legislatures should raise taxes on alcohol, especially beer, to discourage underage drinking, advisers to the government said on Tuesday.

The Institute of Medicine (news - web sites) and the National Research Council (news - web sites) also recommended more careful advertising of alcohol to ensure children do not get bombarded with pro-drinking messages.

"More young people drink alcohol than use other drugs or smoke tobacco, and underage drinking costs the nation an estimated $53 billion annually in losses stemming from traffic fatalities, violent crime, and other behaviors that threaten the well-being of America's youth," the Institute, commissioned by Congress to write the report, said in a statement.

"Alcohol is much cheaper today, after adjusting for inflation, than it was 30 to 40 years ago," the Institute said. "Higher tax rates should be tied to the Consumer Price Index (news - web sites) to keep pace with inflation."

It said many studies had shown that raising prices deters underage drinkers.

CHANGING THE WAY SOCIETY VIEWS DRINKING

The report recommends concerted efforts to change the way society views drinking.

"The Motion Picture Association of America, for instance, should consider content about alcohol use when rating films, and assign mature ratings for movies that portray drinking in a favorable light," the Institute said.

Congress and the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department should monitor advertising, movies, television programs, music recordings, and videos that may be seen by teens and children.

"We think it is reasonable to expect the industry to do more than it is now doing," Richard Bonnie, a law professor at the University of Virginia who chaired the committee, told a news conference.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving praised the report,

"Underage drinking is our nation's No. 1 youth drug problem," MADD president Wendy Hamilton said in a statement.

She said drinking killed 6.5 times more children and teens than all illicit drugs combined. "Only $71 million of the federal fiscal year 2000 budget was spent on underage drinking prevention. This mere pittance pales in comparison to the $18 billion spent on the war on drugs," she added.

ADVERTISING RECOMMENDATIONS

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said it was already moving to tighten its advertising recommendations, saying drinking-related ads should only go into media with a readership or viewership made up of 70 percent adults or more.

"This is a significant increase and replaces the previous provision that required a 51 percent adult audience," the group said in a statement.

"This is a step in the right direction, but the committee believes that the adult threshold for viewers or listeners should be raised even further," Bonnie said.

The Federal Trade Commission issued a separate report on Tuesday saying the alcohol industry had improved its self-regulation on advertising. "The report also found no evidence of targeting underage consumers in the flavored malt beverage market," the FTC said.

But the Beer Institute said calls for tax increases were misguided. "Experience has shown that the only clear results from increasing beer excise taxes are higher unemployment and higher prices for responsible adults -- such measures do nothing to lower teen drinking," Jeff Becker, President of Beer Institute, said in a statement.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beer; ninnies; taxes
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It said many studies had shown that raising prices deters underage drinkers.
Studies by and paid from whom? Names and sources?

This ain't going to do jack squat to reduce underage drinking, and I get sick of these fascist candyass ninnies out there that want to tax or ban everything that is remotely a vice(Beer, pop, fatty foods, guns, smokes, etc). Why do underagers drink(and drink a LOT when they do)? With the tax, it won't stop them. Teens pool their money for beer.

1. It's a rebel thing. Nobody likes being told what to do.
2. It makes them think they are older.

As for these tax advocates, if they want a tax so damn much, they should pay into a tax me more fund. Leave my Guinness alone.

1 posted on 09/10/2003 5:11:08 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
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To: Dan from Michigan
Great, shift them to drinks that give more bang for the buck like vodka.
2 posted on 09/10/2003 5:12:17 PM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: Dan from Michigan
As for these tax advocates, if they want a tax so damn much, they should pay into a tax me more fund. Leave my Guinness alone.

You are right.

3 posted on 09/10/2003 5:13:01 PM PDT by NeoCaveman (Life is like a jar of jalapenos, what you do today can burn your @$$ tomorrow.)
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To: Dan from Michigan
Underage drinkers also typically steal their beer and liquor from parents. The tax will only piss off mom and dad.
4 posted on 09/10/2003 5:13:37 PM PDT by July 4th
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To: Dan from Michigan
B/S ALERT!


5 posted on 09/10/2003 5:15:24 PM PDT by scab4faa (Can't sleep.. the clowns will eat me... Can't sleep.. the clowns will eat me... Can't sleep..)
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To: Rodney King
Now that scares the hell outta me.

I'll make sure to stay off the roads on Friday nights near the areas where the field parties were when I was that age.

6 posted on 09/10/2003 5:15:39 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("Our party will never be the choice of the NRA" - John F. Kerry, who looks French)
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To: Dan from Michigan
Beer is the cause and the solution of all of life's great problems-- Homer J. Simpson

Beer me!

7 posted on 09/10/2003 5:15:51 PM PDT by dogbyte12
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To: Dan from Michigan
Sure.

And we'll raise the price of sneakers to $100, and kids won't buy them.

I would support this if every penny of the badded beer tax revenues went to adult beer drinkers who turned in their beer receipts along with proof of adulthood.
8 posted on 09/10/2003 5:17:11 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed
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To: Dan from Michigan
If they get thier way, we'll eventually be paying $40 a six pack if what happened to cigs is any indicator.
9 posted on 09/10/2003 5:20:33 PM PDT by rmmcdaniell
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To: Dan from Michigan
Here lies the last American.

Taxed unto death.

10 posted on 09/10/2003 5:21:59 PM PDT by LibKill (Leaving the toilet seat up improves your household feng shui.)
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To: Dan from Michigan
Peanut Alert
11 posted on 09/10/2003 5:22:28 PM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I am as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.)
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To: Dan from Michigan
Taxes on beer? Ya ... that'll work ... stop teenage drinking dead in its tracks! Where do we find these morons that propose this type of idiocy ... surely they're not conservatives.
12 posted on 09/10/2003 5:26:17 PM PDT by BluH2o
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To: Dan from Michigan
These Jackasses haven't figured out that every dollar that a "Teen" has is disposable income regardless of the cost.
13 posted on 09/10/2003 5:26:20 PM PDT by Falcon4.0
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To: Dan from Michigan
Some of us take beer pretty seriously.
14 posted on 09/10/2003 5:26:50 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Dan from Michigan
How about increasing the tax on everyone who dies? Maybe it will reduce the death rate?
15 posted on 09/10/2003 5:26:50 PM PDT by rotstan (Cthulhu Fthagn)
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To: Dan from Michigan
Don't mess with my suds.
16 posted on 09/10/2003 5:28:07 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Dan from Michigan
I've got a better idea. Don't sell beer or cars or dynamite to children.

Why is that concept so hard?

17 posted on 09/10/2003 5:28:38 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Dan from Michigan
I got into it with a 'increase the beer tax to prevent teen drinking' advocate on a local talk show a month ago.

I told him this.
My two boys lived at home when they turned 18, the legal ago then.
They drank Killians, Heinekens, and other costly beers while I was drinking Pabst, Carlings, etc.
They have the money, a tax won't do jack ---.

It's all about getting more $$.

18 posted on 09/10/2003 5:47:33 PM PDT by Vinnie
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To: Dan from Michigan
Why is it that every Liberal's solution to every problem (they see or create) is to raise some tax?

ML/NJ (Maybe they can only apply the tax to people under 14?)

19 posted on 09/10/2003 5:48:38 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: Dan from Michigan
Tax beer? That is wrong on so many levels that is difficult to know where to begin. How else will we induce people to watch athletic events, for instance?

If we tax beer, THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!

20 posted on 09/10/2003 5:52:27 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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