Price 'affects alcohol addiction risk'

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by Change | 15 Jan 2009

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If alcohol is sold at a higher price people are less likely to drink as much or as often, reducing the risk of alcohol addiction, new research reveals.

The more alcohol costs the less likely people are to engage in behaviours which can lead to substance addiction, research states.

Published in the February edition of Addiction, the review of 112 studies across 40 years of research found taxes on these drinks reduce both the frequency of drinking and the amount consumed.

Alexander Wagenaar, a professor of epidemiology and health policy research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, states the survey analyses over 1,000 different sets of findings and finds a consistent series of results across many of these.

"When prices go down, people drink more, and when prices go up, people drink less," he claims.

Mr Wagenaar asserts manipulating taxes on alcohol is one of the best methods of controlling intake and reducing the risk of people developing alcohol addiction.

He says it is more effective than law enforcement, media campaigns and school programmes.

In other news, Peter Mansfield-Clark, director of rehab clinic Crawley Open Hose, claims homeless people with alcohol addiction problems should not be sold cheap, high-strength lager.

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