#1 Isn’t Always A Good Thing

On Tuesday, October 17, Mueller Communications LLC took the opportunity to point out that the United Health Foundation’s 2023 Health of Women and Children Report ranked the state of Wisconsin “last (50th) for excessive drinking among women and fourth-worst (46th) for alcohol use among youths” (Mueller email).

One day later, on Wednesday, October 18, State of Wisconsin Representative John Plumer, R-Lodi, and Senator Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, sought to make the brandy old fashioned Wisconsin’s official state cocktail. Their rationale? “Wisconsin accounts for over half of Korbel’s annual brandy sales in the United States, purchasing over 150,000 cases of Korbel brandy in 2019 alone” (LaCrosse).

Go figure. Wisconsin also has:

the eighth greatest amount of alcohol consumption per capita (Wisevoter Alcohol);
seven of the top ten U.S. cities with the highest alcohol consumption per capita (TMJ4);
the fifth greatest in beer drinking per capita (BeerInfo); and
the “drunkest city in America” – Milwaukee – three years running: 2021, 2022, 2023. (TMJ4)

But, to be sure, the news isn’t all negative (said with tongue firmly planted in cheek)! Wisconsin has:

the 48^th lowest beer tax in the nation;
the 43^rd lowest wine tax in the nation;
and the 41^st lowest liquor tax in the nation (CapTimes).

Call me ridiculous, but I don’t think we need any reason to laud the drinking done in America’s Dairyland. We may even consider that the 20^th most populous state in the nation, as Wisconsin is (Wisevoter States), shouldn’t be celebrated for buying over half of ANY brand’s alcohol sales in the nation.

I’ve worked for over 25 years to educate about, prevent, and mitigate substance use disorders, and, despite the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse’s (SCAODA) stating that since 2010, “municipal interest and experience in implementing evidence-informed policies and practices that reduce alcohol misuse has increased dramatically,” I haven’t seen any positive changes.

We’re still the only state in the nation that allows children to buy their own alcohol when their parents or guardians are on the premises with them. Yes, that’s the correct interpretation of Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 125.07: “No person may procure for, sell, dispense or give away any alcohol beverages to any underage person not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.” To put this another way, a person MAY procure for, sell, dispense or give away alcohol beverages to any underage person accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.

Other states allow children to drink alcohol in the presence of their parents or legal guardians; Wisconsin actually lets children buy the alcohol, as long as they are “accompanied by,” which means under the same roof as their parents or guardians, and we’ve got some pretty large taverns in Wisconsin, so just let that sink in for a moment. You’re probably thinking that the parent/guardian needs to be next to the child. Nope; that’s not the case. Ohhhhhh, then the child has to be at least a specific age…like 18 or at least 16, right? Yeahhhh, no. That’s not the case either.

Oh, and Wisconsin has only a very weak dram shop law (Cannon), meaning that, per the statute, “A person is immune from civil liability arising out of the act of procuring alcohol beverages for or selling, dispensing or giving away alcohol beverages to another person.” So, if your loved one is killed by a drunk driver, don’t bother considering suing the bartender or owner of the place that overserved said drunk driver. That bartender is immune from civil liability…unless the drunk driver was OBVIOUSLY underage AND served without being carded.

SCAODA, though, has some great ideas to:

reduce underage drinking, which is drinking by anyone under the age of 21;
reduce binge drinking among adults, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as consuming four or more drinks on any one occasion for a woman or five or more drinks on any one occasion for a man, and heavy drinking for adults, which is defined by the CDC as eight or more drinks per week for a woman or fifteen or more drinks per week for a man; and
reduce alcohol-related deaths.

One of the best recommendations – and there are a great number of really good ones, such as raising taxes on a keg of beer for the first time since 1969 (CapTimes) – but the one I really like is “Conduct mandatory ethics code trainings for all who make government decisions on alcohol matters. […] This training should not be limited to elected and appointed officials, but should also be given to all committee members of any committees making decisions on alcohol related matters, including licensing, permitting, and law-making.”

Maybe then Representative John Plumer and Senator Cory Tomczyk would understand that, since “Wisconsin’s excessive drinking costs residents approximately $6.8 billion annually[, and] binge drinking alone is estimated to cost Wisconsin’s residents $3.9 billion annually” (SCAODA), we don’t need any encouragement at all, especially from our government, to normalize drinking.

References