Alright, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but a new study from the CDC showed that over 120 million people drive drunk every year. That’s roughly one in three people. Furthermore, over four million people even admitted to driving drunk in the past month alone after being polled by a stranger. This is absolutely terrifying! What’s more terrifying are all of the other stats about alcohol consumption in the America these days.
Roughly 4% of all adults could be classified as binge drinkers. Binge drinkers accounted for a whopping 85% of the drinking related accidents in the US in 2012. However, it seems that each state does have differences and they seem to correlate with the severity of alcohol related legislation. The stricter a state is with its drunken driving laws, the less drunk drivers there are. “Who would have guessed?”
University studies from University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville showed that raises in taxes on alcohol actually reduced drunk-driving deaths. To be honest, there are a lot of factors that are not taken into account here, but the statistics are unarguable. In Chicago, 2009, taxes increased and deaths declined 26% from alcohol related accidents. Deaths among young people dropped 27% and fatal incidents from irrefutably drunk-drivers and impaired drivers fell 25% and 22%, respectably. It would be nice to see this trend replicated across the country. It could potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. What it won’t save is…. Well, your money.
Perhaps legalizing and taxing illegal drugs might have benefits too! But… I’ll leave that topic for another time.
