Alcohol Abuse

A report recently released by a National Research Council panel chaired by a Kennedy School professor states that "modest but real" opportunities for reducing alcohol abuse are available through legislation and public policy.

Mark H. Moore, Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice and Policy Management, headed the two-and-a-half year study initiated to advise the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism on the effectiveness of current alcohol-control policies. Thomas C. Schelling, Littauer Professor of Political Economic, was also a member of the 14-person panel.

The report found drunken driving legislation to be a significant way of curbing alcohol abuse and cited minimum-age alcohol purchase laws as an effective way of reducing alcohol-related youth traffic accidents.

Public policy instruments including alcohol price increases and taxation are important ways to decrease consumption, according to the report. However, the report noted the difficulty in determining the effective alcohol policies which are also "efficiently influenced by government."

Moore said Friday that he agreed to chair the National Research Council panel because of previous work on drug abuse policy and because of flattery. "They told me I was the youngest ever to head a panel," Moore, in his early thirties, added.