Editorial Response: Ingrained 'Drinking Culture' Not All Bad For State

Ingrained “drinking culture” not all bad for state

There is a saying “we don’t know who discovered water, but we’re sure it wasn’t the fish.”  If you grew up in Wisconsin and are not affected by addiction, you can’t understand what’s the big deal. 

It’s simply because you were able to escape the ramifications of addiction.  Congratulations!  Addiction is a brutal deadly disease that affects hundreds of thousands of families in Wisconsin.  Watch your local tavern for a couple nights and take time to notice the same cars there every night of the week.  These patrons are caught in the brutal struggle for their lives.  And, they affect every person in their sphere of influence.

This is the second hand effect of drinking.  Their families develop similar diseases; they also learn how to cope with the uncertainty and pain by doing the one thing that dulls it, they drink.  Their friends and co-workers are also affected because alcoholics create untold cause and effect incidents. 

And once in a while they are killed or kill someone else.  And the legacy of these tragedies, remain the scars for a lifetime.   They also get OWI tickets, all the while thinking it’s just their bad luck, because they were just having a good time, 5-10 drinks and then driving home, like they always do. 

The national thresholds for binge drinking is 5 drinks (Women its 4) but  ask most Wisconsin drinkers, on an average night in an average bar and you’d be laughed out of the place.  Five drinks is just getting started.  This orientation leads to the current norm that it’s ok cause we’re in Wisconsin and it’s what we do. 

I know many people are concerned that getting tougher on drunk drivers will push drinkers back into their homes, and it will “God help us” hurt the economy.   Shouldn’t we start caring for the families of alcoholics rather than the tavern owners?  

What about simply beginning to begin?  Wisconsin has a problem. Of the estimated 457,000 Wisconsinites with addiction problems, only 11% can get access to treatment, mostly because they have poor or no insurance.  I propose that we tax alcohol a dime a drink (10 cents) indexed to inflation.  We won’t call it a tax we’ll call it a user fee.  If you believe that most people in our taverns and bars are occasional users drinking a beer or two a night, the cost is 20 cents.  A person binge drinking twice the national average, 10 beers would pay 1.00 dollar. A buck a night, clearly user fee is more equitable than my county taxes.  

This at least will allow everyone who wants help to get it. We can take part of it and pay for the added cost of our law enforcement to set up sobriety checkpoints  around the state and or women’s shelters  and other services that help families recover from the “drinking culture” many  consider not all bad.  

A bit too radical for you?   Perhaps we simply repeal Wisconsin law 125.07 allowing children to be served alcohol in bars? Science has long established actual brain changes in kids using alcohol at an early age.   True, most kids at bars don’t drink, they simply swim like fish in the drinking culture, quietly watching, waiting while their parents quietly get liquored up, before getting behind the wheel, to drive them home.   

Tom Fuchs, Director

L.E.Phillips-Libertas Treatment Center

Chippewa Falls