Pennsylvania Sets Booze Sales Record During Pandemic

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania adults appear to have followed a national trend and significantly increased their alcohol intake during the pandemic.

State Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores recorded both record net income and the largest sales increase in history during the 2020-21 fiscal year. That information's release by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board coincides with The Harris Poll releasing survey results indicating nearly one in five respondents reported alcohol consumption patterns that met the poll's criteria for heavy drinking.

According to the LCB, sales for the last fiscal year totaled $2.9 billion, a $349.4 million increase over the 2019-20. Additionally, 2020-21 fiscal year sales were $238.5 million more than the previous fiscal year record of $2.67 billion set in 2018-19, an 8.9 percent jump.

Net income for the year totaled a record $264.9 million, an increase of $56.1 million - or $26.9 more than in 2019-20.

The Harris Poll results didn't surprise Dr. Craig Hopkinson, chief medical officer and executive vice president of research and development at Alkermes, the global biopharmaceutical companythat commissioned the poll.

"Published data have demonstrated that alcohol use in the U.S. has increased during the pandemic," he said. "This particular survey provides insight into (specific) drinking patterns."

In the survey released Wednesday, heavy drinking was defined as having had two heavy drinking days in a single week at least twice in the previous 30 days. A heavy drinking was defined for women as four or more drinks containing alcohol; for men, the standard was five or more drinks.

Seventeen percent of the poll's respondents reported meeting those standards.

About one in four (24 percent) continued to drink after experiencing a memory blackout. Twenty-two percent experienced withdrawal symptoms when the effects of alcohol were wearing off. And
23 percent gave up or cut back on activities that were important or interesting to them, or gave them pleasure, in order to drink.