Editor

Boston Globe

RE: Police boost forces for Series start, October 23, 2004

No one disputes that a drunken brawl celebrating the Red Sox pennant win resulted in the death of 21-year-old Emerson College student, Victoria Snelgrove. So how did twenty-five bar and restaurant owners persuade Boston Mayor Thomas Menino not to ban alcohol sales by promising to "prohibit television cameras from showing the crowds inside?" Answer: by blaming the media instead of acknowledging the role of alcohol in this tragic death.

Too bad the mayor didn't talk with Ms Snelgrove's grieving parents or the Boston residents and other businesses whose taxes pay for the extra police and emergency medical response required to deal with alcohol's costly-and sometimes heartbreaking-secondhand impacts. Ultimately, we all pay some of these costs-even those of us who do not drink-while alcohol producers and sellers are the only ones who benefit.

Instead, it's those who profit from excess consumption who should be the ones to pay. Only then can the rest of us stop picking up the tab for alcohol's secondhand effects. But first we need to correctly identify the source of the problem: violent, drunken behavior is a predictable outcome of heavy alcohol consumption-not TV cameras.

Laurie Leiber
Manager, Media Advocacy
Marin Institute