502 - New Mexico's Neglected Alcohol Problem
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New Mexico has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the US, but the problem is routinely sidestepped at best or, at worst, blamed erroneously on the Native American population. Journalist Ted Alcorn talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the barriers facing New Mexico in tackling alcohol as a public health crisis. Learn more here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:17.0 | and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore. |
| 0:19.7 | Our goal is to bring evidence and experience to illuminate critical public health issues. |
| 0:25.5 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to Public Health Question |
| 0:29.5 | at jhhu.edu. |
| 0:31.7 | That's Public Health Question at jhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:36.9 | Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith Rogers, producer of Public Health On Call. for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:40.9 | Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer of public health on call. |
| 0:43.9 | Today, our topic is alcohol in New Mexico. |
| 0:49.0 | Dr. Josh Sharfstein speaks to Ted Alcorn, a journalist raised in the state, |
| 0:53.1 | about a series of articles he has published with New Mexico in-depth, |
| 0:55.8 | a non-profit investigative news website. |
| 0:56.9 | Let's listen. |
| 1:02.4 | Ted Alcorn, thank you very much for joining me in Public Health on Call to talk about this series of articles you've written about alcohol in New Mexico. |
| 1:08.1 | The title is Blind Drunk. |
| 1:14.4 | Why Blind Drunk as the title and what did you find? |
| 1:21.2 | So my home state is New Mexico and I grew up there with an awareness that the state has had a long struggle with addiction. It's one of the poorest states in the country. It's got a lot of other |
| 1:26.1 | kinds of inequalities and disparities. But even for me, looking at the data related to alcohol-related mortality in New |
| 1:33.5 | Mexico was really eye open. The state has the very highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the |
| 1:40.0 | country, head and shoulders above every other state. And it's a problem that's just much |
| 1:45.8 | faster than I'd realized. Alcohol killed more people in New Mexico in 2020 working age than |
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