A Case for Liquor Taxes that Reduce Harm Overview

• Alcohol consumption in Canada has increased by over 11 % in the past decade. • Per adult absolute alcohol consumption in British Columbia has increased from 8.18 litres in 2002 to 8.53 litres in 2005. • Since 2002 the numbers of hospitalizations and neuro-psychiatric deaths attributable to alcohol in BC have increased by 11.7 % and 18%, respectively. • In 2005 there were an estimated 25,194 alcohol-related injuries and illnesses in BC requiring hospitalization compared with 4,817 related to illicit drug use. • There is extensive scientific evidence to support the use of pricing and taxation strategies as effective means of reducing alcohol consumption and related harms. • In British Columbia such strategies are readily achievable because the government alcohol monopoly directly controls liquor prices. • 65 % of the coolers now sold in BC contain 7 % alcohol content and have an average price of $5.41 per litre, compared with $8.07 for coolers with a 5-5.9 % alcohol content. • We recommend that liquor prices more closely reflect alcohol content and that these are regularly updated with the cost of living. • Beers and coolers with low alcohol content should have significantly lower price ‘mark-ups ’ applied to give manufacturers, retailers and consumers incentives to produce, market and consume these products. • Minimum prices also need to be set and updated regularly to ensure there are no cheap high strength products available. • We also recommend that a “nickel a drink ” tax be introduced to generate $95.7 million per annum for treatment and prevention programs. • Detailed results are available at the BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring website (www.AODmonitoring.ca