Alcohol: Keeping Count

As we researched substance abuse in New Hampshire it became clear that alcohol imposes very severe costs on society. Many economists and policy centers have attempted to quantify these costs. It is generally accepted by federal officials that something on the order of $165 billion dollars in losses or avoidable expenses can be attributed to alcohol in the areas of health care, wages, criminal justice and so forth.

This would not be the case if alcohol were not generally available and one reason it is generally available is that many people who drink suffer no ill effects. There is no compelling reason to restrict its sale, at least any more than we currently do. Thus, we have a fine substance that does no harm to many if not most users and yet the harm it does is quite large.

On top of that, thousands of jobs and several private sector groups with political heft depend on the sale of alcohol -- not to mention the state revenues derived from beer, wine and spirits.