Down the Hatch

Whatever it is that makes people drink, it makes them drink more in the capital of the U.S. According to a survey put together by the Center of Alcohol Studies at New Jersey's Rutgers University, the average adult resident of Washington gulped, sipped or chugalugged 8.77 gallons of hard liquor last year. No state even came close to that record. The 1962 rankings by state of gallons* drunk per adult (defined as 15 years and over):

Nevada 5.75 Oregon 1.73

Alaska 3.54 South Dakota 1.71

New Hampshire 3.53 Michigan 1.68

Connecticut 3.02 Arizona 1.67

New Jersey 2.97 Ohio 1.65

Delaware 2.84 North Dakota 1.64

Florida 2.71 South Carolina 1.55

California 2.65 Georgia 1.54

Massachusetts 2.63 Pennsylvania 1.51

New York 2.57 New Mexico 1.48

Maryland 2.49 North Carolina 1.45

Illinois 2.45 Kentucky 1.40

Vermont 2.22 Idaho 1.36

Colorado 2.17 Texas 1.29

Minnesota 2.07 Oklahoma 1.28

Virginia 2.02 West Virginia 1.25

Wisconsin 2.01 Utah 1.25

Wyoming 1.92 Indiana 1.20

Maine 1.91 Iowa 1.10

Washington 1.91 Tennessee 1.06

Rhode Island 1.85 Arkansas 1.01

Montana 1.79 Alabama 1.00

Nebraska 1.74 Mississippi .00/-

Missouri 1.73 Hawaii (unavailable)

* The gallons include no beer--only liquor. Last year the average American drank an additional 15.1 gallons of beer. It will probably go up this year: the U.S. Brewers Association reported last week that 10,215,147 barrel of beer were sold in July--the first time in history that Americans have consumed more than 10 million barrels in a single month.

/- Mississippi is officially "dry," but has many easily located stores, supplied by out-of-state wholesalers. The state collects a $4.20 "black market" tax on each case of liquor brought into the state and another 9% sales tax when the liquor is sold. Last year Mississippi took in $3,302,385 in taxes on more than a million gallons of liquor imported and sold within state borders. But there is no "official" gallonage consumption figure, because, according to state law, Mississippians do not drink.

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