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Alcohol Awareness Month Brings Opportunity for Change, Reducing Alcohol-related Harms in Wisconsin

April 1, 2025

Wisconsinites are known for their Midwestern niceness, helping their neighbors, and their love of the outdoors. Unfortunately, Wisconsin is also known for its high rates of excessive alcohol use. In fact, Wisconsin ranks 47th out of 50 in the U.S. for its excessive drinking, where a lower ranking means a state has more widespread excessive drinking. Excessive alcohol use often leads to an increase in alcohol-related harms, including property damage, violence, injuries, cancer, and lost work time, among others.

We can all agree – people want to be safe and have a good time with friends and family without worrying about injuries or harm from people who drink alcohol. While alcohol has become a significant part of Wisconsin’s culture, there are public health solutions for reducing alcohol-related harms. They include:

  • Regulating alcohol outlet density: When there are many places that sell and advertise alcohol in a particular area, people tend to drink more. But, when communities set policies so that alcohol outlets are fewer and farther apart, research demonstrates that the health and safety of communities improves.
  • Tracking overservice of alcohol: In Wisconsin, you may hear this approach referred to as Place of Last Drink (POLD). Current law says that no person can sell or give away alcohol to a person who is intoxicated. Generally, intoxication occurs if someone exceeds 4 – 5 drinks in about two hours, also known as binge drinking. Ensuring public safety, reducing injury, and supporting safer alcohol environments are all part of the effort to reduce overserve.
  • Implementing alcohol age compliance checks (AACCs): AACCs are law enforcement operations where an underage young adult, aged 18‐20, works with a law enforcement agency by attempting to purchase alcohol using their own ID or without any ID. If the youth completes an alcohol purchase, the law enforcement agency issues a citation to the individual (clerk, cashier, bartender, server, waiter) who sold the alcohol. Note: retailers are informed in advance that compliance checks will be happening in their area.
  • Modernizing taxes on alcohol: The last time the U.S. adjusted the federal tax on alcohol was in 1991 when we were all still using VHS tapes and floppy disks. Modernizing taxes on alcohol could provide much-needed revenue for new initiatives that invest in communities that face more alcohol-related harms to promote health and a sense of belonging.

No matter where people live in Wisconsin, everyone deserves to be safe from alcohol-related harms like injuries, disruptions, and other problems that can build up in areas with excessive alcohol use. Let’s be good neighbors and work together to make change in Wisconsin. You can start today by using our Alcohol Awareness Month materials to spread the word.

Learn more about the Comprehensive Injury Center’s work to reduce alcohol-related harms by visiting their Division of Alcohol Policy, Prevention, and Research web page.

Tagged: Community Engagement/Community Partnership Community Health Comprehensive Injury Center Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project

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