The Price of Free Drinks

   Why is it that what society recognizes so readily in one industry it refuses to see in another? Many good people are aware that the street drug dealers often give away product to entice new or reluctant clients to those habits. We see this for what it is and consider it to be one of the ills of their trade. It's a form of preying on the the addicted in our neighborhoods, especially when they are vulnerable and often trying hard to stay clean. For this reason, if we were to assess a sin tax to drugs it would be wiser to tax the product at wholesale rather than at retail, for that is where most of the actual sin is taking place. The drug dealer is not ill, as is the addict. The dealer is greedy and makes his money taking advantage of the ill.

   By the same token, it seems that a sin tax on alcohol would work better at the wholesale level rather than the retail. Alaska is reported at some of the highest tax rates on alcohol in the country, yet we see little evidence of the money helping the peoples situation. Many alcoholics work in the industry for their access to alcohol, just as a drug addict may work for the dealer. If licensees were taxed at wholesale instead of at retail, in my opinion, it would eliminate a lot of loose or free alcohol in between. However we have been taxing has not helped the people of this state, only the wholesalers.