After a six-year study of Kentucky counties, researchers at the University of Louisville concluded that “dry counties” tend to have more intense problems with methamphetamine abuse than counties where alcohol is legal.
The study, which ran from 2004-2010, found the average incidents of meth use to be twice as high in dry counties as in wet, with other meth-related crimes also significantly higher in counties where alcohol sales are banned. The meth lab-seizure rate for dry counties was also significantly higher in dry counties, with 2.14 per 100,000 residents, while the rate for wet counties was 3.92 per 100,000.
On the national level, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have the highest number of dry counties, and they also have the highest rates of meth use.
But how could banning alcohol encourage meth consumption?
The University of Louisville researchers concluded that “prohibiting the sale of alcohol flattens the punishment gradient, lowering the relative cost of participating in the market for illegal drugs.” In other words, when people break the law by going to a bootlegger for alcohol, they have already become outlaws. Operating on the black market, they are more likely to be exposed to illegal substances and perhaps even try them.
According to the Kentucky study, “If all counties were to become wet, the total number of meth lab seizures in Kentucky would decline by about 25 percent.”
The Kentucky researchers were not alone in their conclusions.
Multiple studies conclude that banning alcohol not only increases meth use; it also fails to reduce alcohol consumption. According to data compiled by the Kentucky State Police, counties where alcohol sales are legal had lower rates of DUI-related vehicle crashes.
A recent Journal of Law and Economics study of counties in Texas saw a 14 percent drop in drug-related deaths after those counties went from wet to dry and in 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that binge drinking rates were often higher in Alabama’s dry counties than in those where alcohol sales were legal.