Alcohol Use in California Costs Every Resident $1000 Annually
At a time when Budweiser is in the news for being purchased by Belgian brewer InBev, another interesting news item about alcohol caught my eye today. The below report will inevitably be used to attack "Big Alcohol" so that companies like InBev will be responsible for more of the devastating effects of their products.
The Annual Catastrophe of Alcohol in California
A New study funded by the Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog
outlines
the cost of alcohol use to the state of California to be $38.4 billion
annually or $1,200 per second. That's a cost to every resident of
roughly $1,000 annually. The costs come in the form of crime, traffic
DUI costs, illness, and injury.
The study also estimates an
additional $48.8 billion in quality of life costs, due to the pain and
suffering of victims and families
Marin Institute compared the
economic losses to those from natural disasters and concluded that
alcohol costs far outpace earthquakes and fires. Per the Marin
Institute: "Unlike earthquakes, fires, floods and mudslides, which come
along infrequently, the catastrophe of alcohol in California happens
annually, with devastating effects, and can be prevented."
The
Marin Institute's study will calling for a number of steps to reverse
the catastrophe, including higher alcohol taxes to reduce excessive
consumption and the related harm and costs.
The above blog about the costs of alcohol to residents of California is brought to you by Sober Living by the Sea Treatment Centers located in Newport Beach, California. We have been treating alcoholic men and women to help overcome their addiction and understand the underlying issues that lead to their chemical dependency for over twenty three years. We have gender specific drug treatment programs for men and treatment programs for women.
