Binge drinking, defined as drinking five or more drinks on one occasion for men or four or more drinks on one occasion for women, was responsible for 77 percent of these costs, WECT News reported.
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According to recent estimations, excessive drinking has drained $249 billion from the US economy in 2010, and these costs have been escalating in the past few years.
The data is from 2010 and showed an increase from the estimated 223 billion we blew in 2006.
Two of every 5 dollars of costs-over $100 billion- were paid by governments. At $249 billion in 2010, the cost per drink had risen to $2.05, outpacing inflation.
Approximately 77% of these expenses were proven to be in direct association with binge drinking, a practice that consists in consuming large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time.
The study also found that state costs for excessive drinking ranged from a low of $488 million in North Dakota to a high of $35 billion in California.
This habit brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels at 0.08 g/dL and normally occurs when people consume around 4-5 drinks in about 2 hours.
The study, titled “2010 National and State Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption”, looked only at costs to the economy that were seen as the direct result of the excessive consumption of alcohol.
The CDC arrived at the staggering figure by combining drinking-related healthcare costs, accidents, and the cost of alcohol-fueled crimes, but the biggest factor, by far, was reduced workplace productivity, in other words the total inability of your hungover ass to get anything done.
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Excessive drinking is blamed for 88,000 deaths each year. Still, they said they believe the report underestimates the cost of excessive drinking since information on alcohol use is often underreported or unavailable, and other costs, such as pain and suffering due to harms from excessive drinking, were not included.
