Judy: We know that drug
overdoses and the opioid
epidemic have risen dramatically
over the last two decades
causing hundreds of thousands of
deaths.
Alcohol use and abuse is a huge
problem as well, one that gets
far less attention.
A new study documents how big a
toll it is taking on American
lives.
John yang has the details.
Reporter: The study which is
from the centers for disease
control and prevention found
that between 2015 and 2019 one
in eight working age Americans
died from excessive drinking.
Among those ages, 20-49, one in
five deaths was attributable to
alcohol.
20-34, one in four.
Overall, working age Americans
accounted for nearly two thirds
of the nations annual average of
140,000 alcohol-related deaths.
An independent journalist who
covers health for the New York
Times.
I know you watch the situation
carefully.
What struck you or stood out to
you from this report?
>> The CDC only do this kind of
analysis and release those full
accounting of alcohol deaths
every few years and the trends
have been going up for a long
time but it is still shocking
when you see at that it is
killing about 140,000 Americans
a year.
It is not lonely -- it is not
only a huge public health
problem but it is cutting into
people at the core of their
life.
It is neglected as a crisis.
Reporter: So much attention has
been given to open your the
recent years.
Can you compare the two?
>> The country has been juggling
a lot of public health
challenges the last two years
and we have our plate full and
we are rightly giving a lot of
attention to opioid overdose
deaths.
Those deaths come to around
100,000 people a year.
Alcohol kills more people than
opioids and gets a fraction of
the attention.
Reporter: Why does it not get a
lot of attention?
This is a substance that is
largely legal and lightly
regulated compared to opioids.
Does that create the impression
it is not a problem?
>> Alcohol is a popular
commodity.
The majority of Americans
partake.
Millions and it responsibly.
It has huge societal costs.
I think we under appreciate the
harms because some of them are
scattered across the health
system.
People tend to think of alcohol
and its impact on the roadways
in terms of drunk driving and
accidents and do not recognize
the huge number of deaths
contributes to.
The CDC put together 58 causes
of death that are alcohol
attributable including breast
cancer among women, it is
thought to contribute to
cardiovascular disease.
For all of those reasons come
only when the CDC puts these
causes together do we get a full
picture of the catastrophic
damage it is doing.
Reporter: The data in the study
goes up to 2019 because of how
they collect the data.
Before the pandemic.
During the pandemic, with social
isolation, was there any sense
this may have gotten worse?
>> The data the CDC puts
together in this country hence
of way is out of date.
The preliminary data we have
from 2020 said just some kinds
of alcohol-related deaths jumped
considerably that year and there
was a period of time where
people appeared to have been
drinking more frequently,
drinking at home and at a higher
volume.
The numbers as they come in now
for this year and in future
years are likely to be even
worse.
Reporter: The study also shows
wide disparity in
alcohol-related deaths from
region to region.
In New Mexico, it was incredibly
high.
You looked at New Mexico.
What is going on there?
>> The state is head and
shoulders above other states in
the number of alcohol-related
deaths it has and the study
shows that in New Mexico people
that died between the ages of
28-39, one in three as
alcohol-related and that is due
to a constellation of factors
having to do with the region,
the poverty of the state,
disparities within the state, a
system still catching up.
Researchers say it also has to
do with a week policy
environment.
New Mexico has typically not
embraced a lot of the measures
that scientists say would be
important for addressing excess
alcohol use.
Reporter: What are some of those
measures?
The study gives us a sense of
the size of the problem.
What are the measures and
solutions that could be used?
>> Dr. Marissa as her, the head
of the CDC's alcohol program
told me that evidence-based
strategies are out there and
underused.
The ones she ticked off as top
priorities are to increase the
price of alcohol by using
alcohol taxes to do so and that
is a matter of simple economics
that when prices go up, demand
has to go down.
Contrary to that evidence, the
U.S. Congress last year made
permanent reductions in the
alcohol taxes and the trend
across most states has been to
allow those taxes to shrink
controlling for population.
Alcohol is more affordable today
for most then it has been in
American history.
Reporter: Journalist Ted Alcorn,
thank you very much.