September 12, 2003
Quote of the Week
This week a National Academy of Sciences panel recommended that the federal government raise taxes on adult beverages (including tripling excise taxes on beer), ostensibly to deter underage drinking. Of course, most of the panel's members have close ties with the neo-prohibitionist Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a 10-figure monolith that seeks to lower alcohol consumption across the board (not just for the under-21 set).
If any more proof were needed that alcohol opponents are going on the offensive against responsible adult drinking, this is it. Page 101 of the NAS report suggests that:
...the most "cost-effective strategy to reduce underage drinking" includes policies that produce their main effects not on underage drinking, but rather on the overall level of drinking in the population.
