Study: The Hidden Financial Cost of Drinking Rises

Some sobering statistics released this month show there's more than just a personal cost to excessive drinking.

There's also a public cost: nearly a quarter trillion dollars in 2010 nationwide.

The study was released by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they say the data spells out a simple message: when people drink too much, they cost society money.

For people with hangovers, that might mean missing a day at work: lost productivity. But the losses add up after including things like the cost of crimes influenced by alcohol, car crashes, and the overall health effects of consuming too much booze.

In North Carolina, it adds up to just over $7 billion. That's $2.11 per drink: six cents higher than the national average.

But the costs aren't falling only on private businesses and property owners. In fact, every taxpayer is picking up at least part of the bill.

According to the study, the total cost to the North Carolina state government from high alcohol consumption was about $2.8 billion.

That means, in 2010, residents paid $294 on a per capita basis to fund government response to excessive drinking.

If all this sounds expensive, it is. But the researchers believe their findings are actually underestimating the real economic losses of heavy drinking, since they don't account for the cost of things like pain and suffering.

In their report, the researchers' conclusion is clear. The rate of excessive drinking has grown since the previous study in 2006, and that's a problem both personal and broad implications.

“Unless this changes,” they say, “the economic cost of excessive drinking is likely to increase, placing an ever-greater burden on the excessive drinker, their family, society, and taxpayers.”