Higher tax on alcohol, smokes will save teens.

Byline: ANTHONY BIGLAN, EDWARD LICHTENSTEIN and HERBERT H. SEVERSON For The Register-Guard

THE OREGON LEGISLATURE will miss a golden opportunity if it does not increase the taxes on tobacco and alcohol. Additional taxes will not only generate much-needed dollars for the state but also will make significant contributions to public health - especially the health of Oregon's young people.

Cigarette smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people every year. More than 80 percent of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 18, which is the legal age of purchase in the United States. Of the 3,000 people a day who start smoking, about 1,000 will eventually die of a smoking-related illness. If we can prevent young people from starting to smoke, we will save many lives.

Raising the price of cigarettes appears to be the single most effective thing we can do to reduce smoking among teen-agers. The 1994 Surgeon General's Report on Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People concluded that price increases are especially effective in reducing youth smoking. Subsequent studies have confirmed this finding and attribute this in part to teens having less discretionary money to spend than adults.

A 50-cent increase in the price of cigarettes would prevent an estimated 14,700 children and adolescents who currently live in Oregon from taking up smoking. Additionally, an added 50-cent tax would raise an estimated $107 million.egon to Washington

Teen-age alcohol use is also a major public health problem. According to the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse, 29.7 percent of 12th-graders, 24.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 13.2 percent of eighth-graders reported consuming five or more drinks in a row at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey. Girls in high school now consume alcohol at the same rate as boys.

Such patterns of binge drinking are a major cause of alcohol-related car crashes and contribute substantially to interpersonal violence. Teen-age binge drinkers are also at much greater risk of becoming alcoholics. If we can reduce teen alcohol consumption, and especially binge drinking, we can prevent premature death and many ruined lives.

Here too, a tax would be beneficial. Numerous studies have shown that increasing the price of beer reduces use among adolescents. Surprisingly, increases in price have their greatest effect on young people who drink heavily. One study estimated that if increases in the price of beer had kept up with inflation in recent years, youthful drinking would have been reduced by 9 percent and youthful heavy drinking by 20 percent.

Increases in the price of alcoholic beverages would also reduce alcohol-related car crashes and fatalities. A study at Cornell University estimated that a 10 percent increase in the price of alcoholic beverages would reduce the probability of drinking and driving by 13 percent among young men and by more than 21 percent among young women. Another economic analysis indicated that a 100 percent increase in the beer tax would reduce highway mortality by 27 percent among 18- to 20-year-old drivers.

Research also indicates that increasing the tax on alcohol would reduce violent and nonviolent crime in all age groups, would reduce fights among teens, and would lower the rate of child abuse and domestic violence.

Oregon has begun to make significant progress in efforts to prevent adolescent problem behavior. Research-based programs that can cost-effectively reduce teen-age crime and the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances have been identified, and we are beginning to implement them around the state. Effective programs range from supportive programs for low-income single teen-age mothers, through parenting programs for parents of children and early adolescents, to intensive family interventions with juvenile offenders. Cutting state funding will surely undermine efforts to get these programs implemented.

Increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol is a win-win proposition. It will have a direct effect in deterring teen tobacco and alcohol use - and all of the problems that result from them - while at the same time enabling Oregon to continue to implement the programs that are needed to prevent adolescent problem behavior.

A period of economic difficulty in Oregon need not bring about increased illness and death.

Oregon can emerge from a difficult economic period as a better place to raise children. This is a small price to pay for a great benefit to the citizens of Oregon.

Drs. Anthony Biglan, Edward Lichtenstein and Herbert H. Severson are senior scientists at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene.