Raising the cost of alcohol has not been show to affect consumption, except for underage drinkers - no small benefit in itself. However, I've been proposing a Recovery Trust Fund (paid for with alcohol taxes), similar to the Highway Trust Fund (paid for with gas taxes). The idea has a certain elegance - the people most likely to need treatment would pay the most into the fund. If treatment and prevention works and reduces the demand for alcohol, the amount paid into the fund also goes down. Light drinkers would not feel enough of a bite to reduce their consumption, nor would it pay off for them to go to a neighboring state to buy booze (no small consideration here in tiny little Washington, DC). Heavy drinkers also will not travel, because the benefits of consumption for them are much greater in proportion to the tax increase than for light drinkers. And when a practicing alcoholic needs a drink, he doesn't want to have to go far to get it. I'd also tax recreational drugs -- you might not get much for the RTF, but you would have another avenue for investigation and prosecution of dealers. After all, they got Al Capone on tax charges, not Prohibition violations.