For those who count Don Draper among their TV loves, it comes as no surprise that drinking and smoking go hand in hand. Public health researchers have long known that smokers tend to drink, drinkers tend to smoke, and heavy smokers tend to drink even more heavily.
We’ve also known that increasing state taxes on cigarettes actually reduces smoking and helps people break the habit.
Raising cigarette taxes also lowers the amount of drinking, the most recent analysis finds. The study, published Wednesday in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, highlights the tie between the vices.
However, the beneficial effect only applied to beer and spirits, not wine. Wine drinkers, the authors say, are more likely to have healthier lifestyle habits than beer or spirits drinkers.
“[The results] made sense to us because prior research shows that wine drinkers are less likely to smoke,” said Melissa Krauss, a data analyst at the Washington University School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study.
