• Despite its illegality, alcohol establishments continue to sell alcohol to intoxicated persons.
• New findings show that establishments that hold regular staff meetings, and that have full-liquor licenses, are less likely to sell alcohol to intoxicated patrons but the rates are still high.
• Establishments with managers who have more than one year of employment are more likely to sell to intoxicated patrons.

As of January 1, 2003, it became illegal to sell alcohol to intoxicated persons in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Yet the practice not only continues, it is common. A new study differentiates among the work experience of managers of bars and restaurants, types of liquor licenses, and policies and practices in order to tease out the differences among those establishments that sell, or do not, to pseudo-intoxicated customers.

Results are published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"Alcohol consumption is associated with many problems, including traffic crashes, crime, and violence," said Kathleen M. Lenk, research coordinator with the Alcohol Epidemiology Program at the University of Minnesota and corresponding author for the study.

"At least 85,000 Americans die each year from alcohol-related causes, making it the third leading actual cause of death in the United States," added Carol L. Cannon, associate research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. "Devastating human and social costs are compounded by economic consequences. In 1998, the total monetary cost of alcohol-attributable consequences including health care costs, productivity losses, and alcohol-related crime costs was estimated to be $185 billion."

Furthermore, said Cannon, alcohol-related problems are often associated with the over-co
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25-Jun-2006