Drug policy and alcohol taxes

Mark Kleiman is not someone immediately associated with taxes.  A professor at UCLA who focuses on drug policy, he falls decidedly left of center.  His most recent book is When Brute Force Fails, argues that we can have less crime with less stringent drug laws; this is the Portugal model.

He was recently on bloggingsheads.tv, a great website where wonks and cultural critics exploit modern technology to amplify their message, discussing the book.  The end of the interview, where he talks about the effects of an alcohol tax, is most relevant to this blog.  My internet is not cooperating right now, so I can’t link to it, but his argument is that doubling the tax on alcohol would only cost about $.10 per drink, which is nothing to a light drinker.  The people an alcohol tax negatively effects are the heavy drinkers, the ones we don’t want drinking because they get in fights, drive on the roads, and have large negative health costs.  Rightly, he aligns himself with the reality-based community; it’s a charged term, but progressives won’t win without being confrontational and emotional.

Even if you disagree with his argument, it’s worth a look just to admire the beard and dark eyebrows.