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Saturday, September 27th, 2014

Dizzying Stat: 10% of Americans Down at Least 10 Drinks a Day-Guess Who’s Paying

Author:     CLIFF WEATHERS
Source:     AlterNet (U.S.)
Publication Date:     September 26, 2014
 Link: Dizzying Stat: 10% of Americans Down at Least 10 Drinks a Day-Guess Who’s Paying
Stephan:   I will confess to being stunned by this report. I grew up in rural Tidewater Virginia, where drinking was a significant avocational activity, and knew something similar was true in many other places throughout the country, particularly in the South. People had something at lunch, then more again before dinner and then nightcaps. It kept a light buzz going until you went to bed. My parents drank very little, my father almost nothing at all, so it did not impact my home life. But I saw its effect on many other families. There was almost no falling down drunkenness, it was considered bad form. But the effect of chronic drinking took a fearsome toll over the years nonetheless, and shaped so many families that I knew. I left that world when I was 24. That was nearly half a century ago. I was surprised to find that in much of America nothing has changed for tens of millions.
Photo Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Photo Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham [3] seems fascinated with charts and economic statistics and public policy professor Philip J. Cook [4] is fascinated with America’s love-hate relationship with alcohol. Let these two minds meet for a few moments and what you’ll learn about booze is shocking [5].

Ingraham got a hold of Cook’s new book, Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control, which chronicles the economic and societal costs of destructive drinking. And what he found in it is stunning. Cook says that 10% of American Adults participate in destructive drinking to the point where they’re consuming at least 10 drinks a day. That’s more than two bottles of wine or about two-thirds of a 750ML bottle of hard liquor. Or as Cook’s research shows, almost 74 drinks a week.

Moreover, Cook’s research shows about 30% of U.S. adults consume at least a drink a day and 20% have second.

If just thinking about that size of those tabs gives you nausea and inspires you to be nicer to […]

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