Alcohol-related deaths in US have more than doubled over past 20 years, study finds
https://www.foxnews.com/us/alcohol-related-deaths-us-more-than-doubled-20-years
The number of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. has more than doubled since the turn of the century, according to a new government report.
“Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research” found alcohol-related deaths per year shot up from 35,914 in 1999 to 72,558 in 2017. Given reports that death certificates often fail to indicate alcohol as a cause of death, the actual number is likely higher.
Researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics looked at death certificates from 1999 to 2017 and found the rate of alcohol-related death increased 50.9 percent, from 16.9 to 25.5 per 100,000. This equates to nearly 1 million lives lost over the 18-year span.
In 2017 alone, 2.6 percent of deaths in the United States were alcohol-related. Nearly half of the alcohol-related deaths were the result of liver disease or overdoses.
Rates were highest among males, those between the ages of 45 and 74 years and among non-Hispanic American Indians or Alaska natives. However, the largest annual increase occurred among non-Hispanic white females. They are finding an extreme need for alcohol addiction recovery centers.
Unsurprisingly, Americans have been consuming more alcohol since the start of the new millennium. Per capita consumption of alcohol over the same time period by about 8 percent. An average of 2.34 gallons of ethanol were consumed per capita in 2017. Over 20 million gallons of beer were consumed that year, according to Statista.
As of 2017, health care costs from alcohol abuse alone in the U.S. were estimated to be $27 billion per year.
Filed under: General Problems
Well everyone knows how Prohibition went, we simply have to absorb the fact that if one wants to die of alcohol we must let them die. But that doesn’t mean in today’s judicial environment that we could not sue Big Alcohol right down to a nub. I mean tobacco survived, so can Big Alcohol. The price of tobacco went to Pluto and there was the ‘solution’ we all could live with. The ‘throw a battleship at a spitball’ principal seems to make sense these days for most, especially after the “news” adds some tears to the story like they can do so well, …and some poor attorneys can get a little ahead in life too, I think it can work.
CVS, Walmart and Walgreens all advertise low liquor prices in under served neighborhoods. These companies even expanded their floor space, selling cheap unhealthy processed foods to vulnerable populations in food deserts The alcohol lobby and these massive chains paid our politicians to look the other way. They do not even count the number of alcohol related crimes, and arrests at these mega stores. Customer complaints after being accosted harassed or robbed in the parking lots, are not reported by media either.
The lies, propaganda and selective reporting are contributing to deaths in this country. Alcohol is another big indicator of our American Deaths by Despair, yet the lies and denial continue. Alcohol marketers have even gone so far as recommending alcohol for people with chronic pain. Many patients with chronic pain that went untreated or even misdiagnosed were forced to turn to alcohol, when their long term primary care physicians refused to treat them. Of course no research was ever done on the number of problem drinkers that have painful disorders, post surgical injuries, and intractable chronic pain.
The deaths from alcohol are long painful, expensive and drawn out, yet no action has been taken due to the influence of our alcohol lobby. They sensationalized the opioid deaths, which are relatively quick, while ignoring the costs, long term hospitalizations, and societal damage of alcohol. The media has not covered any of this fact based information, to protect their profits, and the profits of the big box stores. In a nation of deadly alternate facts, that lead to more deaths, they chose to ignore all of this. The For Profit healthcare system did nothing, even as their ERs were filled with alcoholics, people dying from long term alcohol abuse, and people injured while intoxicated.
Apparently as long as Revenue is coming in on a controlled substance, paid directly to the overlords, it’s “OK” to condemn, Yourself, to ill health but, heaven help you if you are diagnosed with KNOWN pain generating disease, involved in an accident or suffer from the negative effect(s) of a licensed physicians’ screw up. Lifetime pain happens, one way or another……….EVERYDAY. Possibly from birth or otherwise. The self righteous blessed with “good health” ..for now, can not see beyond the nose on their faces.
Not at all surprised. Also not surprised that there’s no frantic hysteria about the “alcohol epidemic,” like there is with opioids. i hate people.