
 
 Time to pay the tab, America. ( Pixonomy/Flickr 
 
 It's Friday, and let's face it: If you're not hungover at work this morning, you're probably wishing you were. My personal favorite hangover cure is data, and the good folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just dropped a pile of sobering stats this week that may help clear your head. 
 
 They found out that collectively, our national drinking habit costs society $249 billion a year. That cost comes primarily from excessive drinking -- bingeing on four or more drinks per evening, or drinking heavily all week long. That total cost manifests itself primarily in things like early mortality due to alcohol ($75 billion of the total), lost productivity and absenteeism at work ($82 billion), health-care costs ($28 billion), crime ($25 billion) and car crashes ($13 billion). 
 
 The government pays about $100 billion of that total cost via things like Medicare and Medicaid payments, the criminal justice system and the like. The rest falls on private citizens and entities, like you and your employer. 
 
 These estimates are derived from a number of previous studies that examined the alcohol-attributable costs of various negative societal and health outcomes. So there's a level of abstraction and flat-out guesswork involved that's worth keeping in mind. 
 
 Still, these are probably the best possible estimates of alcohol's total cost to society. The CDC's researchers took them a step further, too: By factoring in the total amount of alcohol consumed in a given year, they were able to derive the societal cost of a single standard drink. That pumpkin spice martini that cost you $15 at the bar last night? It also carries a hidden cost to society of $2.05. 
 
 
 
 And that cost-per-drink varies by state, too, because of different economic conditions in different places. An hour of lost productivity costs differently depending on whether it happens in New York or Nebraska, for instance. The state-level per-drink cost of heavy drinking ranges from $0.92 (New Hampshire) to $2.77 (New Mexico). 
 
 "So, Chris," I hear you saying. "If I tell you where I live and how many Jaegerbombs I pound in a given week, can you tell me how much my drinking habit is dragging the economy down?" 
 
 You better believe it! Use the drop-downs below to select your state and your typical weekly alcohol consumption, and you'll see the total annual societal cost of your drinking. Remember: "Drink" means "standard alcoholic beverage," or the equivalent of one 1.5-ounce shot of liquor, one 5-oz. glass of wine or one 12-oz. beer. So if you pour six ounces of Captain Morgan into a mug and top it off with a splash of coke, that counts as four drinks, not one. 
 
 As I mentioned above, federal and state governments spend roughly $100 billion a year to deal with these costs. This amount greatly exceeds the revenue that alcohol taxes bring in, which works out to something like $16 billion a year -- $6 billion from state and local taxes, and $10 billion from federal excise taxes. 
 
 This is why a lot of researchers think that state and federal alcohol taxes should be raised. This would have the dual benefit of making heavy drinkers drink less and helping to pay for the costs of their drinking. Federal alcohol taxes are currently at historic lows. But lawmakers, with the support of the spirits industry, want to make them even lower. 
 
 On the other hand, the alcoholic beverage industry says that it contributes $400 billion in economic activity to the U.S. economy each year. So even with a $249 billion annual cost, the overall economic impact of our drinking habit would be a net positive. 
 
 Regardless, the CDC's new numbers serve as a reminder that every time you toss back a drink, Uncle Sam is paying part of the tab. 

 This website is archived for historical purposes and is no longer being maintained or updated. 
 
 Press Release For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 15, 2015 
 
 Contact: Media Relations 
 
 (404) 639-3286 
 
 The COST of Excessive Alcohol Use: A Drain on the American Economy 
 
 Entire Infographic 
 
 Excessive alcohol use continues to be a drain on the American economy, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Excessive drinking cost the U.S. $249 billion in 2010, or $2.05 per drink, a significant increase from $223.5 billion, or $1.90 per drink, in 2006. Most of these costs were due to reduced workplace productivity, crime, and the cost of treating people for health problems caused by excessive drinking. 
 
 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 most of these costs (77 percent). Two of every 5 dollars of costs — over $100 billion — were paid by governments. 
 
 “The increase in the costs of excessive drinking from 2006 to 2010 is concerning, particularly given the severe economic recession that occurred during these years,” said Robert Brewer, M.D., M.S.P.H., head of CDC’s Alcohol Program and one of the study’s authors. “Effective prevention strategies can reduce excessive drinking and related costs in states and communities, but they are under used.” 
 
 Excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for an average of 88,000 deaths each year, including 1 in 10 deaths among working-age Americans ages 20-64. 
 
 Excessive alcohol use cost states and the District of Columbia a median of $3.5 billion in 2010, ranging from $488 million in North Dakota to $35 billion in California. Washington D.C. had the highest cost per person ($1,526, compared to the $807 national average), and New Mexico had the highest cost per drink ($2.77, compared to the $2.05 national average). 
 
 The 2010 cost estimates were based on changes in the occurrence of alcohol-related problems and the cost of paying for them since 2006. Even so, the researchers believe that the study underestimates the cost of excessive drinking because information on alcohol is often underreported or unavailable, and the study did not include other costs, such as pain and suffering due to alcohol-attributable harms. 
 
 The study, “2010 National and State Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption,” is available at http://www.ajpmonline.org/content/infoformedia. For more information: https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/. 
 
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 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
– A splitting headache is exactly what too much drinking is causing America—both in the people who imbibe and in the US economy. A CDC study says that US employers lost $77 billion in 2010 thanks to workers' impaired productivity due to excessive alcohol abuse—a number that jumps to almost $90 billion once other drinking-induced factors such as absenteeism are pulled into the mix, Bloomberg reports. And the study came up with an even more dire number for alcohol abuse's effect on the US economy overall that same year: $249 billion, a number that includes not only the lost-productivity toll, but also spending on health care, crime, car crashes, and alcohol-caused deaths. That headache seems to be getting worse. Back in 2006, the same cost to the US economy was $224 billion, outpacing inflation, per Bloomberg. "The increase in the costs of excessive drinking from 2006 to 2010 is concerning, particularly given the severe economic recession that occurred during these years," says Robert Brewer, one of the study's authors, in the CDC release. "Effective prevention strategies can reduce excessive drinking and related costs in states and communities, but they are under used." To see how much your particular drinking habit contributes to the total cost, the Washington Post has a pull-down menu in its story. (There's only one proven way to stave off a hangover.)