February 29, 2008

Policy Prescription for Those Having More Than One

The British Medical Journal (subscription required) this morning has an interesting study evaluating alcohol control measures. It's accompanied by an editorial from Thomas Babor of the University of Connecticut, who points out that higher liquor taxes, shorter liquor store hours, and targeted counseling programs can sharply reduce alcoholism and episodic alcohol abuse, which is the advanced industrial world's most serious drug problem.

The spate of teenage auto-cides in my area associated with underage binge drinking has frightened the hell out of this father of a teenager. I hope the presidential candidates at some point get around to talking about our misplaced war on drugs, and tackle the most serious substance abuse problem in our society.

Posted by gooznews at February 29, 2008 08:57 AM
Comments

Small comfort, I know, but it's up to your teenager, him- or herself.

Now that my son is safely 22 and a cum laude graduate of a top liberal arts college, I asked him what I really wanted to know at the time (and refrained (mostly) from discussing): at what age, if he had decided to, could he have crawled into a bottle?

His answer: 15. The parent just has to sort of pray that the kid will make good choices; there really isn't a lot of control.

Posted by: Wendell at February 29, 2008 12:40 PM

A model that applies only within boundaries, but does apply to tobacco and other substances as well.

Boundary conditions: Raise the tax too high and people will bring it in from the next county, or moonshine. However, for reducing impulse use this is effective.
Again, boundaries: works outside some contexts such as parties, where person A, not necessarily even mine host, will make the effort to provide it, enabling impulse use by person B who would not have undertaken the effort.

OTOH, at some levels--not limited to prohibition--making access hard does encourage the bootlegger, the pusher, the mob importer, afghanistan's current agricultural role. . . .

Posted by: davey at March 1, 2008 12:39 PM