alcohol

For the third straight year, lawmakers are trying to raise taxes on alcoholic drinks, in an attempt to reduce New Mexico’s worst-in-the-nation alcohol-related death rate.

New Mexico has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the nation and the situation has gotten even worse since the pandemic. Despite this, state lawmakers this session failed to pass any substantive measures to curb the crisis. Public health reporter Ted Alcorn has long covered the issue for New Mexico in Depth. He spoke with KUNM about a debate over whether and how to change the way the state taxes alcohol. Democrats filed competing bills this year, neither of which got to the governor.

New Mexico lawmakers will once again not raise taxes on alcohol this year, nor redistribute more of the revenue to treatment and prevention. Neither of two competing bills amending the liquor excise tax made it out of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee Friday.

New Mexico has not raised its alcohol excise tax since 1993, but not for lack of trying. Numerous bills have been introduced over the last three decades, but none have been signed into law. Last year, an increase made it through the Roundhouse only to be vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. This year, lawmakers in the state with the highest alcohol-related death rate in the country are giving it another go.

While New Mexico has long struggled with the nation’s highest rate of alcohol-related deaths, the pandemic has inflamed the issue, according to a report released Thursday. The state saw an average of six people die each day from alcohol in 2021, and few living with the addiction are getting treatment.

Bills are heading to the legislature that would raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Advocates say the higher prices, and the prevention campaigns they’ll fund, will help curb use in a state that struggles with alcoholism and teen nicotine use. But some lawmakers pushed back on that assumption in a hearing of the Revenue Stabilization & Tax Policy Committee Tuesday.

New Mexico leads the nation in alcohol-related mortality and around the world alcohol use disorder is a leading cause of preventable death. On this episode, Regents’ Professor Katie Witkiewitz talks about new trends in research and treatment of alcohol use disorder.

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