NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: Increasing excise taxes on cigarettes and restricting where they can be smoked in public through smoke-free air (SFA) laws are known to reduce smoking, and some, but not all, research has suggested that these same measures may have an effect on alcohol use as well.
To study this question and clarify whether the effects are limited to certain beverages, a team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine modeled per capita consumption of total alcohol and specific alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, spirits) in each U.S. state as a function of cigarette price per pack and SFA policies in each state, across nearly three decades (1980-2009).
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