Increasing state alcohol taxes could help prevent sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, according to University of Florida Health researchers, who found that gonorrhea rates decreased by 24 percent in Maryland after the state increased its sales tax on alcohol in 2011.
Multiple prior studies have shown that increases in alcohol taxes decrease alcohol consumption. Less drinking reduces risky sexual behavior, such as having unprotected sex or having sex with new partners. In 2014, the rate of infection from gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis increased substantially nationwide, and young people accounted for nearly two-thirds of the cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia. This UF Health study is one of the first to quantify the effect of alcohol taxes on the rate of sexually transmitted infections.
“If policymakers are looking for methods to protect young people from harmful STIs, they should consider raising alcohol taxes, which have decreased remarkably over the years due to inflation,” said Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., MSPH, an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine department of health outcomes and policy and the study’s lead researcher.
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Raising taxes solves every problem. Just ask any politician.
David DeGerolamo
One free-market solution would be “bundled product marketing” …
Each fifth of liquor would be packaged with a pack of condoms and a course of antibiotics.
Just sayin’ … get the government out of our lives.
Let me guess….funded by the tax board of Maryland.
Several other, less profitable for government, suggestions would be…
1. Promotion of Biblical principles of morality.
2. Elimination of the legalization of infanticide…i.e. abortion
3. Massive reductions or elimination of EBT cards and government handouts in general
Needless to say there are plenty of others but a restoration as well as promotions of morality and a return to a state where one benefits or suffers from the choices they make is the most historically proven means to reduce all sorts of societal ills.