Saves Lives
New Mexico Leads the U.S. in Alcohol Attributable Deaths
16.4% of all deaths in New Mexico are caused by excessive drinking.1
About 1 in 6 deaths among working age people in New Mexico can be attributed to alcohol.
Causes of death include:
- Violence
- Alcohol Poisoning
- Motor Vehicle Crashes
- Liver Failure
- Breast Cancer
- Other Fatal Illnesses2
The Solution:
Increase the alcohol excise tax 25¢ per drink
Let excessive drinking pay for excessive drinking harms
- Save 52 lives a year initially, with the number of lives saved growing larger each year as more and more alcohol-related chronic diseases are prevented
- Prevent 306 violent acts a year
- Prevent 12,375 cases of alcohol dependence or abuse a year, relieving thousands of families of the heartache, financial strain, and emotional turmoil that alcohol abuse and dependence creates
- Reduce overall underage drinking by 13%. That’s 7,150 fewer youth drinking each year, resulting in thousands of New Mexico children avoiding alcohol related problems later in life
- Decrease binge drinking among youth by 4,680 cases and save New Mexicans $20,618,000 a year in costs of underage binge drinking
- Use tax revenues to fund the Medicaid Expansion Match that the state is responsible for in 2017, insuring continued health care coverage to over 200,000 New Mexicans
2Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.