by Trip Jennings, New Mexico In Depth
A bill to impose a 25-cent tax on alcoholic drinks goes before its first legislative hearing of the session Friday. Looming over it is the 2017 defeat of a similar bill by the alcohol industry.
Much has changed in six years. The mood of the Legislature appears different in 2023. Greater awareness of alcohol’s harms seems to have permeated the legislative body. Partly because the stats are so stark. Statewide alcohol-related deaths rose more than 32% between 2019 and 2021 — a punctuation mark on a already-existing reality borne out by data: New Mexicans die of alcohol-related causes at nearly three times the national average and alcohol is involved in more deaths than fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamines combined.
Before lawmakers are a suite of bills that would address the state’s alcohol crisis as well as a draft state budget that contains $5 million for a new Office of Alcohol Prevention, which would represent a significant increase in resources and personnel focused on the crisis.
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