The Effects of Prices on Alcohol Use and its Consequences

Gen Z consumers aged 18 to 24 are more likely to have made or purchased a mocktail, 33% of those surveyed, than other age groups and more likely to buy a mocktail at a restaurant than older generations. Other trends include using alternative barrels, such as cherry wood and acacia, to age whiskey and cask crossbreeding, which is the process of “blending whiskey from different cask types…such as bourbon barrels with…sherry or wine casks.” For wine, a greater percentage of those who were female (44%), college graduates (39%), and those with an annual household income of $100,000 or more (35%) selected the beverage compared to their counterparts.

However, substantial numbers of people are still abusing addictive substances. Moreover, the trends among adolescents have not always been consistent with the trends among adults. In fact for most of the past 15 years, adolescent use was increasing even when use among adults was declining. Only in the past year or two have trends for adolescents and adults declined for most addictive substances. However, numerous studies over the last two decades using a variety of econometric and statistical methods and different types of data have confirmed that higher prices substantially can reduce alcohol use (and abuse) and related adverse consequences even among heavier drinkers. Learn up-to-date facts and statistics on alcohol consumption and its impact in the United States and globally.

1. Plus, even if you don’t have insurance, there are various ways—e.g., sliding fee scales, payment plans, grants, etc.—to assist with payment.
2. States or localities may limit the days or hours that alcohol can legally be sold or served.17,18 These laws may apply to on-premises retailers (such as bars, restaurants, or clubs where alcohol is consumed on-site) or off-premises retailers (such as liquor, convenience, or grocery stores where alcohol is consumed off-site).
3. If you’re regularly abusing alcohol, this may happen more often than you’d like, causing you to miss work to recover or underperform while on the job.
4. About 28 percent of all deaths annually can be traced to the use of tobacco, alcohol, or illicit drugs.

Policies

Over the past three decades, economists and others have devoted considerable effort to assessing the impact of alcoholic-beverage taxes and prices on alcohol consumption and its related adverse consequences. Federal and State excise taxes have increased only rarely and, when adjusted for inflation, have declined significantly over the years, as have overall prices for alcoholic beverages. These effects seem to be more pronounced in the long run than in the short run. Likewise, price increases can help reduce the risk for adverse consequences of alcohol consumption and abuse, including drinking and driving, alcohol-involved crimes, liver cirrhosis and other alcohol-related mortality, risky sexual behavior and its consequences, and poor school performance among youth. All of these findings indicate that increases in alcoholic-beverage taxes could be a highly effective option for reducing alcohol abuse and its consequences. A large and growing literature has explored the impact of prices of alcoholic beverages on alcohol use and abuse as well as related adverse consequences.

The Costs of Substance Abuse

While the proportion of the whole population using marijuana and cocaine has declined, the percent of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders using marijuana or cocaine increased during most of the 1990s (see Figure 5). Only in the past few years, when more community-based efforts began, has there been an apparent reversal of these trends among adolescents. However, the use of MDMA (ecstasy) and methametaphines has been increasing among adolescents and adults. Many studies have shown that in addition to reducing alcohol use and abuse, increased prices also decrease the adverse consequences resulting from alcohol use and abuse. This section provides a brief review of findings from the literature in this area. Marriages may also begin to feel the weight of a husband or wife’s alcohol abuse issues.

Going out for drinks is part of many people’s social lives, young and old, but it can potentially develop into a costly problem in multiple ways. For one, regular drinking can turn into a dependency, or what some people describe as functional alcoholism, giving individuals the belief that they’re in control even when they aren’t. At the same time, it’s estimated that less than 10 percent of those with alcoholism receive professional treatment. Your time as an inpatient also is spent developing life skills and behavior changes suggested by alcohol treatment specialists during counseling and therapy (sometimes involving your partner or family members). Some people also are prescribed medication that reduces alcohol cravings or triggers a negative reaction to drinking. Inpatient treatment begins with 2 to 7 days of detoxification, or “detox,” a period when you withdraw from alcohol use under medical care.

Data Table: Costs of Excessive Alcohol Use by State

These conclusions have important policy implications and suggest that raising prices of alcoholic beverages not only postpones drinking initiation and addiction formation among adolescents and young adults but also reduces heavy or chronic alcohol use among adults. Several studies have addressed the effects of alcohol prices on the drinking behaviors of youths and young adults. This population is of particular relevance because they exhibit relatively high levels of binge drinking and of alcohol-related problems; moreover, there seems to be great potential for using tax and price policies to prevent underage drinking.

Frank J Chaloupka, Ph.D.

Of greater concern is the fact that drug and alcohol abuse take a greater health care toll on older people due to biomedical changes and a greater likelihood of drug interactions with prescription drugs. Despite the interdiction and law enforcement efforts, the average “retail” price of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine is lower, in both nominal and real terms, today than 10 years ago. For legal substances, excise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and more vigilant enforcement of existing laws prohibiting the sale of these substances to minors has been shown to help hinder access by youths.

Treatment is conducted on an outpatient basis and can consist of things such as individual therapy, support groups, and group therapy. The goal of outpatient therapy is to support your life in recovery and continue to build upon the skills and insights you learned in inpatient rehab. According to a 2022 report published by Audience Collective U.S., when purchasing an alcoholic drink, 58% of consumers “think it’s important that a brand is sustainable or eco-friendly.”  When segmented based on generation, 47% of Gen X consumers agreed with the statement, while the percentage increased to 75% for Millennials. When asked if “they would be highly likely to switch to a more sustainable brand” if their favorite alcohol brand “was not using How Long Does Ecstasy MDMA Stay in Your System sustainable practices,” 34% of Gen X, 50% of Millennials, and 32% of Gen Z responded that they would do so.

License States are States that adopt a mixed set of regulations to influence the extent of competition in alcoholic beverage markets rather than directly control distribution and sale of these beverages. Please refer to the section, Other Polices Affecting Alcoholic-Beverage Prices, for a detailed discussion on license States. Extensive literature exists of studies assessing the effects of changes in price on the levels of alcohol use and abuse. Because of the vast amount of literature available, this review focuses mainly on findings from published meta-analyses and reviews and only uses individual studies for illustration, where relevant. Explore how many people ages 18 to 25 engage in alcohol misuse in the United States and the impact it has. Learn how many people ages 12 to 20 engage in underage alcohol misuse in the United States and the impact it has.