The Coalition, a statewide group of 40 organizations and their members advocating in partnership to meet the needs of North Carolinians living with mental illness, developmental disabilities, or the disease of addiction, reports that the North Carolina Substance Abuse Federation, an alliance of eighteen statewide organizations committed to the health and public safety of 9 million North Carolinians is engaging its members and allies to prevent privatizing liquor sales.

Last year, as the privatization debate began to heat up, the Federation voted to oppose privatization. Since that time, Federation leaders and members have publicly spoken out against privatization. Maintaining the current control system has been a key legislative issue and much of the organization’s advocacy campaigns and policy discussions have centered on addressing the public health impact of privatizing the system. In particular, are concerns around an increase in alcohol outlet density. Alcohol control has been shown to reduce alcohol outlet density, overall consumption and generate more revenue than the private sale of alcohol.

In the six States surrounding and including North Carolina, three of which are control states and three of which are license states, control states average 7 outlets per 100k residents whereas license states average 44 outlets per 100k residents. That is over 6 times as many outlets (per capita) in license states as are in control states.

The negative effect of increased outlet density is clear. Higher outlet density is correlated with:

• Higher levels of alcoholism and violence

• Increased physical assaults (by 3.4 assaults per additional outlet)

• Increased alcohol-related injury crashes

• Increased alcohol consumption by college students

• Increased underage drinking

• Economic decline in neighborhoods

• Higher murder rates

Recently, Governor Perdue came out against the privatization of the ABC system. Encouraged by her statement, Federation members launched a campaign to thank Perdue for taking a strong stance against privatization. “Governor Perdue made the right decision on this issue” said North Carolina Substance Abuse Federation co-chair Tim Hall. “But considering the current atmosphere in the general assembly and the financial crisis the state faces, we understand that privatization is still on the table.”

Nationally, North Carolina ranks 6th in revenue and 48th in consumption. Right now, there is no better model representing public health and public safety. Citizens and organizations across the state are coming out in favor of maintaining a control system. In a recent Elon University poll, 52% oppose making the ABC system the complete responsibility of the private sector. The poll also reveals that support for changing the current system has decreased since last spring—from 38% to 29% indicating they want to change the current system.

“We believe the momentum is in our favor and our goal is to connect with allies and communicate with our legislators in Raleigh to let them know that the safety and public health of our communities is a stake,” Hall added.

For more information on the North Carolina Substance Abuse Federation, visit www.ncsapa.org. For more information on The Coalition, visit www.thecoalitionnc.org.