Binge Drinking Costs EVERYONE

Work Loss:

Drinking too much, including binge drinking, cost the United States $223.5 billion or $1.90 a drink, from losses in productivity, health care, crime, and other expenses.

Binge drinking cost federal, state, and local governments about 62 cents per drink, while federal and state income from taxes on alcohol totaled only about 12 cents per drink. 

 

"Because 80% of binge drinkers are not alcoholics, it's not recognized as a problem." 

~ CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH

 

"But binge drinking is worse than it sounds. The average binge drinker puts down eight drinks in those two hours, not just four or five. Younger drinkers slam down even more than eight drinks on average."

~Robert Brewer MD, MPH, head of the CDC's alcohol program

 

The CDC calculates that binge drinkers account for more than half of the 79,000 annual alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. and for two-thirds of the 2.3 million years of potential life lost.

Six percent of all alcohol-attributed deaths - 4,675 per year - are in people under age 21.