Excessive Drinking in Palm Beach

Excessive alcohol use is a problem in Palm Beach, and most people who drink too much are not aware they are alcohol dependent. These facts were highlighted in a recent CDC publication on alcohol poisoning deaths. 

They analyzed deaths due to alcohol poisoning using U.S. death certificate data for 2010-2012

• Three in four alcohol poisoning deaths involved adults 35 to 64 years old, and 3 in 4 were men.
• 2,200 Americans died each year of alcohol poisoning—an average of 6 deaths every day.
• When assessed by race and ethnicity, the majority of deaths were among non-Hispanic whites.  However, American Indians/Alaska Natives had the most alcohol poisoning deaths per million people.
• Alcohol poisoning death rates also varied widely across states, from 5.3 deaths per million residents in Alabama to 46.5 deaths per million residents in Alaska.
• Alcohol dependence was identified as a factor in 30% of these deaths, and other drugs contributed to 3% of the deaths.
• Approximately 88,000 deaths a year are from excessive alcohol use, and many of these deaths involve young people.
• Excessive drinking is responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults
• Excessive drinking costs the United States $223.5 billion ($1.90 per drink) in 2006.

Alcohol poisoning deaths are one of many tragic consequences of excessive drinking, and more specifically binge drinking (i.e., consuming 4 or more drinks on an occasion), which is the most common and deadly pattern of excessive drinking in Palm Beach County.  

As North Palm Beach Recovery Center works to prevent these tragic deaths, we need to first understand the problem and then assess how that impacts the solutions. We believe we have to create communities and environments in Palm Beach that promote sobriety.