Underage drinking is a serious public health problem

These are the talking poiints the MMA uses when explaining its stand on underage drinking:

• The 2004 Minnesota Student Survey found that 63 percent of high school seniors and 40 percent of 9th graders drank alcohol in the past year.
• More than one-third of 12th grade boys and one-quarter of 12th grade girls report binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row) in the two weeks before the survey.
• The average American child tries alcohol before the age of 13. Youth who drink before they turn 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who start drinking at 21.
• Underage drinkers consume 19.7 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States.
• Underage drinking impacts the U.S. and Minnesota economy. The consequences of underage drinking are estimated to cost our nation more than $58 billion per year and the citizens of Minnesota $1.0 billion in 2001.
• Money raised through the tax increase can pay for programs to prevent underage drinking and treatment for alcohol and meth users. 
• A recent report by the Minnesota Supreme Court Chemical Dependency Task Force finds that the magnitude of the problems caused by alcohol-related offenses dwarfs that of all other drugs, including methamphetamine.

Economic reasons

• Alcohol use cost Minnesotans $4.5 billion in 2001, according to a 2004 study by the Minnesota Department of Health. That amounts to over $900 for every person in the state. These costs are 17 times higher than the $260 million collected from alcohol sales in 2004.
• The current Minnesota excise tax on beer and wine is just over a penny per drink.  The tax on liquor is less than 6 cents per drink.  Taxes make up only a fraction of the retail cost of alcoholic beverages.  Minnesota ranks low on alcohol excise taxes.  Minnesota ranks 33rd out of the 50 states in tax on beer, only five states have a lower excise tax on wine, and Minnesota ranks 7th of 32 states that have an excise tax on liquor.
• The alcohol excise tax was last increased in 1987.  In the past 20 years, revenue from Minnesota’s alcohol excise tax has declined by nearly 40 percent in real value. 
• Other states have recently increased the user fee on alcohol.  Since 2002, ten states have increased their alcohol excise tax.

Public support

Three out of four Minnesotans support increasing the alcohol tax.   Recent surveys from the AARP and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation show strong support for an increase in the alcohol excise tax to pay for public safety, prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.