this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Eleven years ago, two days before Christmas, my 24-year-old brother, who was a university graduate and former law student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After a decade of hard and continuous drinking interspersed with addiction and mental health treatment, he could not sustain his recovery. His suicide came on the heels of my mother’s death a year before, and just weeks later, my grandfather died in a car accident. My family’s holidays would never be the same.

Like so many others who survived the loss of someone dear from the chaos of severe substance use disorder (SUD), I am too familiar with unspeakable grief. But I have found meaning through it and purpose in passing that on.

I was a medical resident when I dropped my brother off at an addiction treatment facility for the first time. Later, I became an addiction specialist physician, focusing on treating people with SUD and helping them manage their disease and find remission and recovery. My work has taught me something important: To help stop the addiction crisis that has brought so much sorrow to families like mine, policymakers must prioritize prevention at all levels and support evidence-based prevention initiatives — including raising federal excise taxes on alcohol.

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[–] SCB@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is called a Pigouvian Tax, and they definitely work.

https://movendi.ngo/news/2022/06/07/alcohol-tax-increase-in-poland-leads-to-falling-alcohol-sales/

I strongly disagree with this opinion piece and find the writer's intentions heavily biased, at best, but Pigouvian taxes as a concept are definitely effective.

[–] Adubya@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Thanks! Wasn't the Tobacco settlement fund used to promote anti-smoking programs, given to communities for anti-smoking ordinances, and enriching other public health initiatives that helped make it so effective?

There has to be a use of the tax effectively to discourage the next generations and help increase treatment otherwise the taxes alone could hit a level where some states might start to ignore regulation & the moonshine stills fire back up.