The cost of a drink – alcohol pricing policies and public health

When discussing the issue of alcohol pricing, many people feel that “alcohol costs enough” especially in comparison to other areas in Canada and the U.S. The reality is that policies which impact the price of alcohol are among the most powerful interventions for reducing consumption and related harm.  When prices are lowered, people drink more.  When prices rise, people decrease their consumption.  Not only should alcohol prices be indexed to inflation, setting minimum prices on alcohol based on alcohol content would provide an incentive for consumers to purchase lower alcohol products, particularly consumers such as young adults, who are price sensitive.

 

52% of Kingston respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the price of alcohol should be based on its alcohol content. (Public Opinion Survey of Alcohol Use in Kingston, 2012)

 
While Ontario scores well as far as indexing prices to inflation and mandating minimum retail prices for different categories of alcohol, Saskatchewan has been one of the first jurisdictions to implement minimum pricing linked to the amount of pure alcohol in each product.  Here’s what they found:

• By increasing the price of high alcohol content products, Saskatchewan saw a 12.6% decline in the sale of these products and a corresponding decrease in police calls for public intoxication.
• In addition to a decline in alcohol consumption of 135,000 litres of absolute alcohol, Saskatchewan saw a revenue increase of $9.4 million in the year following the price changes.

A new research series on Alcohol Price Policy in Canada has just been released by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.  The author, Dr. Gerald Thomas concedes that polices such as this are unpopular and are often perceived as “punishing the many for the sins of the few”.  However, he goes on to say that policies such as these (both population level and targeted policies) are needed to effectively reduce all types of alcohol-related harm in Canadian communities.

On December 10^th in Toronto a number of researchers from Ontario, BC and the UK will be speaking at a public seminar in Toronto entitled “Alcohol pricing and public health in Canada: Saving lives while raising government revenues?” This event is sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Centre for Addictions Research of BC and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.