Mapping America"s Worst States For Binge-Drinking This Christmas

Alcohol abuse can result in health problems including memory loss, poor decision making, fetal damage, liver diseases, hypertension and cardiovascular problems... but "tis the season...

As Statista"s Niall McCarthy notes, a recent report by the United Health Foundation found that 18.5 percent of U.S. adults engage in binge or chronic drinking.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Binging is defined as having four or more (for women) or five or more (for men) drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days. Chronic drinking is having eight or more (for women) or 15 or more (for men) drinks per week. The U.S. has an annual average of 87,798 alcohol attributable deaths while 12,460 road deaths were due to alcohol consumption between 2006 and 2010.

An estimated 2.5 million years of U.S. life have been lost due to alcohol abuse between 2006 and 2010. As well as its massive impact on human health, alcohol also has huge financial and economic repercussions. Excessive alcohol consumption cost the U.S. $249 billion in 2010 or $2.05 for each beverage consumed.

The lowest rates of excessive drinking in U.S. states were recorded in West Virginia (11.8 percent), Oklahoma (12.8 percent) and Utah (13.4 percent).

The infographic above shows the 10 states with the highest levels of binge and chronic drinking with Wisconsin on top with 26.2 percent. North Dakora comes second with 25.9 percent while Minnesota rounds off the top three with 22.9 percent.

Study Warns Of Binge-Drinking "Crisis" As Alcoholism Rates Spike 49%

The opioid epidemic isn’t the only public-health crisis plaguing the US.

Americans are hitting the bottle harder than ever, according to a new study published by JAMA Psychiatry, posing new challenges for the US’s strained health-care system as local hospitals and first responders struggle with the spike in substance-abuse related maladies, including overdoses and alcohol poisoning that warrant urgent care.

The JAMA study showed that rates of dangerous binge drinking rose dramatically between 2001 and 2013, with women, ethnic minorities, Americans over the age of 65 and low-education adults registering the largest increases.

“Twelve-month alcohol use significantly increased from 65.4% in 2001-2002 to 72.7% in 2012-2013, a relative percentage increase of 11.2%. Significant increases, seen across all sociodemographic subgroups, were particularly notable among women (15.8%), racial/ethnic minorities (from 17.2% among Hispanic to 29.1% among Asian or Pacific Islander individuals), adults 65 years and older (22.4%), and respondents with lower educational level and family income (range, 11.7%-22.3%).”

Furthermore, rates of diagnosed alcoholism climbed 49% to roughly one in eight Americans.

“The prevalence of 12-month DSM-IV AUD increased significantly from 8.5% to 12.7% (change, 49.4%) in the total population. Significant increases in AUD were seen in all subgroups except Native Americans and those residing in rural areas. Notable increases were found among women (83.7%), racial/ethnic minorities (51.9% for Hispanic and 92.8% for black individuals), adults 65 years and older (106.7%), those with a high school education (57.8%) and less than a high school education (48.6%), those earning incomes of $20?000 or less (65.9%), those living within 200% of the poverty threshold (range, 47.1%-55.8%), and those residing in urban areas (59.5%).”

Rates of “high risk” drinking increased by 30%, with women and minorities again registering the biggest gains.

"The prevalence of 12-month high-risk drinking increased significantly between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013 from 9.7% to 12.6% (change, 29.9%) in the total population. Significant increases in high-risk drinking were also seen for all sociodemographic subgroups except Native Americans and respondents residing in rural areas. Increases were most notable among women (57.9%), other racial/ethnic minorities (from 40.6% among Hispanic to 62.4% among black individuals), adults 65 years and older (65.2%), persons previously married (widowed, divorced, or separated) (31.9%) and married or cohabitating respondents (34.2%), those with a high school education (42.3%) and less than a high school education (34.7%), those earning incomes of $19?999 or less (35.1%), and those residing in urban areas (35.1%)."

The spike in abuse rates among women was perhaps the study’s most alarming finding. The study’s authors speculated that, although men still struggle with higher rates of alcohol abuse, several factors are helping women close the gap. Women increasingly hold high-stress jobs, and social mores surrounding female behavior have grown more permissive.

“Greater sensitivity to adverse health effects of heavy drinking among women are potential biological factors influencing the convergence of rates between the sexes within the context of increasing rates of high-risk drinking and AUD. Drinking norms and values have become more permissive among women, along with increases in educational and occupational opportunities and rising numbers of women in the workforce, all of which may have contributed to increased high-risk drinking and AUD in women during the past decade.”

The rise in alcohol-abuse rates among older Americans was another discouraging revelation from the study – particularly because they’ve typically exhibited lower rates of abuse in the past. The study uncovered an unprecedented increase in abuse rates among the elderly, which is particularly problematic given the increased risk of mortality. Data for the study was collected from surveys of nearly 80,000 people, with the first conducted in 2001-2002, and the second in 2012-2013.

First of Its Kind Study: Pot NOT a Gateway Drug, Can Treat Tobacco & Opioid Addiction

In the latest of dozens of studies proving the healthful benefits of cannabis, researchers in Canada found not only can marijuana be effective in managing pain, but it can reduce a user’s dependency on tobacco, alcohol, and can replace a number of prescription medications — including antidepressants.

Weed, they also found, simply isn’t the “gateway drug” politicians and detractors have claimed it is for decades.

Published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, the study — comprised of 271 participants enrolled in Canada’s Marihuana for Medical Purposes program — is considered one of the first to evince how cannabis can help alleviate substance addiction.

“[T]his study is the first to specify the classes of prescription drugs for which cannabis is used as a substitute, and to match this substitution to specific diagnostic categories,” the study findings state.

Called the first comprehensive study of people enrolled in Canada’s medical marijuana program, researchers pointedly found cannabis does not act as a gateway drug — the primary premise of pot prohibition.

Indeed, weed has been targeted by so-called anti-drug groups for years as the gateway to harder and ostensively dangerous substances, facilely providing the impetus for politicians and officials to keep it pegged as a Schedule 1 drug — alongside heroin, cocaine, and LSD.

For the study to prove not only that isn’t true, but that cannabis can replace opioid painkillers and other pharmaceuticals — as well as alcohol and tobacco — makes it foundational, if not revolutionary.

“Cannabis is perceived to be an effective treatment for diverse conditions,” wrote lead researchers, Philippe Lucas from the University of Victoria and Zach Walsh from the University of British Columbia, “with pain and mental health the most prominent.”

Analyzing the 107 questions study participants answered online, concerning “demographics, patterns of use, and cannabis substitution effect,” researchers found a whopping 63 percent used weed in place of prescription medications — 30 percent of whom replaced pharmaceutical opioids with cannabis.

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Fully 16 percent turned to weed as an alternative to benzodiazepines — such as Xanax or Valium — for treating anxiety and insomnia, while 12 percent chose cannabis over antidepressants to relieve symptoms of depression.

One-quarter of participants had substituted cannabis for alcohol, and for 12 percent, weed was preferable to tobacco — three percent of respondents even replaced hard drugs with pot.

Essentially, the findings could be viewed by the pharmaceutical industry and prohibition-loving politicians as a threat to the wallet.

However, for-profit prisons, police, and attorneys likely will salivate at the telling detail that 42 percent of participants obtained their cannabis through unregulated or illegal channels.

Of course, that’s by design of the U.S.’ global war on drugs. Maintain cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug without medical benefit — despite mountains of solid scientific evidence to the contrary — and Big Pharma easily maintains a skyrocketing profit margin on opioid and other medications.

Backlogged court systems, overcrowded prisons, and extortive penalties levied through police complete the circle of pot prohibition profiteers.

“The findings that some authorized patients purchase cannabis from unregulated sources and that a significant percentage of patients were charged for medical cannabis recommendations highlight ongoing policy challenges for this federal program,” the study authors conclude.

High Times points out that “[a]s we’ve seen in the United States, keeping medical marijuana in an illegal status not only creates an unsafe scenario for the patients who obviously can benefit from it, but also results with a major revenue loss. Not to mention the health, law enforcement and social costs resulting from the opioid epidemic facing our country.”

Considering the findings from this breakthrough study and others proving the seemingly endless medical and psychological benefits of cannabis, those societal costs prove insignificant in the eyes of those who keep this miraculous plant highly illegal or difficult to obtain.