The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

February 3, 2010

State tax on beer to treat drugs?

By Mannix Porterfield

CHARLESTON — Hiking the tax on beer sold in West Virginia is needed to generate money to finance a drug treatment plan, two delegates agreed Wednesday.

Drug abuse has mushroomed into such a societal problem that it affects every county, every town in the state, and no family is spared, Delegate Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, observed in making the beer tax pitch.

“It does not discriminate,” he said in a floor speech.

“You can be rich, poor, middle class, educated, school dropout, gainfully employed or standing in the unemployment line.”

Hamilton suggested he had no problem with random drug testing of people getting public assistance.

Without a plan to treat addicts, however, what good does it do to identify them, he asked.

His allusion was to a controversial bill, authored by Delegate Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, but still not out of bill drafting, that would expose those on the dole to random drug tests.

“Before I pick up my paycheck next week, if you want to drug test me, that’s fine,” Hamilton said.

Eschewing conventional wisdom that warns against raising taxes in an election year, Hamilton said the Legislature should impose an extra penny per bottle or can of beer sold, which would generate some $7.6 million.

“We’ve got to do it,” he said. “We can’t wait.”

Hamilton drew a personal illustration, telling fellow delegates of his ultimately confirmed suspicion his son was abusing drugs.

Once confronted, the son vowed to take a drug test.

“I wish 100,000 times I had taken him by the arm and said, ‘Let’s go,’” the delegate said.

“Thank goodness, he’s on the mend. That’s just one personal experience. There’s not a family that’s not touched by the problem.”

Last year, after offering the same tax proposal, Hamilton said he was inundated with e-mails, letters and telephone calls from beer distributors in opposition.

Hamilton said one firm hiked its price per bottle by 3 cents.

“I won’t mention the company,” he said.

“They’ll get enough advertising Sunday during the Super Bowl.”

Hamilton recalled Gov. Joe Manchin’s request in the State of the State address for another tool to combat drug traffickers by letting cities deal with owners of abandoned structures where they set up shop.

Taking one dealer off a street in a city only makes room for another to take his place, Hamilton said.

“There’s another way we can fight this — let’s take away their customers,” he said.

Lending bipartisan support to his beer tax legislation, Delegate Barbara Hatfield, D-Kanawha, said she would support any tax to provide money for a substance abuse program.

“We have children, we have teenagers, ruining their lives by being on drugs,” said Hatfield, a veteran nurse.

“We can test everyone in this state. But unless you have the treatment programs, it’s not going to do any good.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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