Articles

The California State Legislature is considering a 10 cent fee on alcohol drinks. This was originally proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger, and over 80% of Californians support it according to surveys. Considering the budget crisis and a need for new fair and reasonable fees, legislators need to be contacted with supportive comments.

We ask that you contact your California State Representatives and urge their support for this fee. If you don’t know who they are, you can find them at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html with all of their contact information. The points below come directly from Assembly Bill 1019 and outline some good reasons to adopt this fee.

1. Alcohol-related problems cost Californians an estimated $38.4 billion annually, including costs for alcohol-related illness and injury, criminal justice, lost productivity, as well as and impacts on the welfare system, trauma and emergency care, and the foster care system, among other costs.
2. Alcohol use drains California’s state and county governments of approximately $8.3 billion annually in increased health care costs, criminal justice costs, and lost tax bases, while the income to the state in alcohol licensing, fees, excise taxes, and sales taxes is less than $1 billion annually.
3. The alcohol industry currently does not pay any fees at the state level to offset or mitigate the enormous costs its products impose on California.
4. One out of every nine Californians suffers from alcohol addiction.
5. Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers and the cause of many permanently disabling injuries.
6. Eight out of every 10 felons sent to state prisons are alcohol abusers.
7. Annually, there are over 220,000 admissions to publicly funded alcohol treatment services. Alcohol treatment services reunify families, and decrease criminal justice activities and costs.
8. Alcohol use during pregnancy causes approximately 5,000 children to be born in California each year with alcohol-related birth defects.
9. Drinking and driving is the major cause of traffic accidents and fatalities in California each year.
10. The use of alcohol is a major cause of hospital emergency room and trauma care treatment, and greatly contributes to the need for transportation costs such as emergency medical air transportation services and ambulance costs.
11. The use of alcohol is closely associated with mental illness and contributes enormously to the cost of treating the mentally ill.
12. Effective prevention and treatment services for youth increase school attendance and academic performance.
13. California prevention services reach only 4.3 million people annually, but the entire population of the state needs access to prevention services.
14. The use of alcohol is a factor in the majority of child and spousal abuse cases, and is frequently associated with the abuse of the elderly, mentally ill, and mentally retarded residents of long-term care facilities.
15. There are significant benefits of alcohol treatment and recovery programs and they are effective. People who complete treatment find employment and pay taxes, no longer suffer from alcohol problems, and become productive members of their communities.
16. While the staggering cost of alcohol abuse is borne by all Californians, 67 percent of the alcohol sold in California is consumed by only 11 percent of the population.

Southern California Locations for Alcohol and Drug Treatment
Tarzana Treatment Centers has locations all over Southern California in Los Angeles County and Orange County. Other than our central location in Tarzana, we have facilities in Lancaster in the Antelope Valley, Long Beach, in Northridge and Reseda in the San Fernando Valley, and in Santa Ana.