Between 2006 and 2010, an average of 106,765 Americans died each year from alcohol-related causes such as liver disease, alcohol poisoning and drunk driving—more than twice the number of overdoses from all drugs and more than triple the number of opioid overdoses in 2015.
A study in JAMA Psychiatry that compared American drinking habits in 2001-02 with those in 2012-13 found that “high-risk” drinkers—women who, in any given week, have at least four drinks in a single day, or men who have five drinks—increased by nearly 30% during the study period.