BY RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

New Mexico’s government urgently needs to take the steps required to reduce alcohol-related deaths. In 2021, more than 2,200 New Mexicans died of alcohol-related causes. Such deaths occurred at the highest rate of any state in the US, at 34.3 per 100,000 people. These deaths come with enormous social and economic impacts on families and communities throughout New Mexico. About 1,500 of those deaths could have been avoided if New Mexico would have lowered its rate of alcohol-related deaths to the national average.

The most effective way to achieve this is well-known⎯reduce the demand for alcohol by significantly raising alcohol taxes. This is the same approach the US has taken so successfully to reduce tobacco-related deaths. 

For a state government that professes to be so concerned about the health of its people, what could prevent taking a well-known and evidence-based approach to reducing so many unnecessary New Mexican deaths? The answer appears to be money. New Mexico in Depth recently reported that from 2013 to 2023, some lobbyists opposed to increasing alcohol taxes contributed almost $1.2 million to the campaigns of our state legislators and statewide candidates and spent almost $460,000 “wining and dining” our policy makers.

This information gives us one indication of the “value” that NM’s state government puts on the lives of its people. Let’s say that raising alcohol taxes could reduce alcohol-related deaths by 1,500 people per year. Let’s also say that our state government did not raise taxes due to the unwarranted influence of about $170,000 spent (on average, over the last ten years) by many lobbyists opposed to raising taxes. In this scenario, the inaction of state government would have contributed to 1,500 New Mexicans’ deaths, essentially in exchange for $115 per life.

I do appreciate the measures the state has taken to enhance the health of our people. However, I want to suggest to the governor and the state legislature that the lives of New Mexicans are worth much more than reflected in their terrible failures with respect to alcohol policy. Actions speak louder than words. The coming legislative session must act forcefully on raising alcohol taxes. These taxes could be tied to measures that almost all New Mexicans support, such as efforts to reduce excess alcohol use, strengthen law enforcement, and help our elementary students read better. 

Please write to your state representatives and the governor demanding action on alcohol taxes. Only intense lobbying by large numbers of concerned citizens can possibly move policy in the needed directions. If the state fails to act on alcohol taxes now, please also remember during the next state election the lack of respect that some government officials show for New Mexican lives.

(Richard Skolnik is the former Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population for South Asia at the World Bank. He was a Lecturer in Global Health at The George Washington University and Yale, where he still holds an appointment, and the Executive Director of a Harvard AIDS treatment program for three countries in Africa. Richard is also the Instructor for the Yale/Coursera course Essentials of Global Health and the author of Global Health 101, Fourth Edition.)