Binge alcohol use in the past month among persons aged 18-25 years in the U.S. from 2002 to 2022, by gender

Shoutout to the spike in women drinking when Trump got elected

Correlation is not causation, but...

Obligatory NYT headline: "Alcohol poisoning used to be a time honoured pasttime in this small town, but Millennial woke mob took it all away."

I think at least part of it is due to weed. Both it being legalized and being more popular than it's ever been in non-legal states. At least for me, smoking weed kills my desire to drink nearly as much. Usually at parties or just hang outs it starts off with a beer or mixed drink or three, then someone breaks out the weed and suddenly I'm nursing my fourth drink for an hour.

I'm shocked there's no bump in 2020-2021. Many people I know, myself included, started drinking so much more during the pandemic.

It went from 50% to 30% which is less but the scale makes you feel it is much lower

I enjoy being intoxicated all day and not having a raging headache the day(s) after. Weed 4 Life!

It looks more like the correct headline is binge drinking among men drops to the same level as women's binge drinking. The red line ends very close to where it starts.

I'm in the 18-25 demographic. I don't binge drink cuz tummy hurt :(

Now do the UK.

Would be interesting to compare and contrast with a country that doesn't have legal weed

As a non-drinker that seems like a lot, OTOH, I have spent a lot on liquor for cooking so...

I don't live in a civilized state with legal weed, but I can get the hemp derived delta 9 gummies at any smoke shop, and they do a damn fine job (until Ken Paxton gets a hard-on for criminalizing them anyway)

Since I've had easy access to cannabis that I don't have to smoke, my desire to drink has plummeted.

I'm not gonna tell you that I've quit drinking. I'm not even gonna tell you that I've quit binge drinking.

But I am gonna tell you that I was once that guy who centered his entire existence on "when can I start drinking?"

Today, without any interventions, without any criminal charges, without any AA, without any conscious decision, I've somehow become entirely indifferent to alcohol.

I'll buy a twelve pack of beer here and there or a bottle of whiskey. Used to be either would be gone the next day. Now it'll take months (plural) to get through either one.

Downside: I've been a whole lot less social without the lubrication of alcohol. Weed doesn't make me social. It puts me to sleep.

Upside: I've pretty much ceased all alcohol related bad decisions. No more sorting through texts from the previous night or having to apologize.

Really big upside: No hangovers

Young people don't have my decades of experiences to arrive where I am today. Seems like they've found the equilibrium without first having to pay to price of alcohol consequences, and good for them.

What happened to the women in '15/'16 lol

Is that vos everyones too busy trying to feed themselves they can't afford to get drunk.

The scale of the graph is a bit misleading though.

There's apparently a similar story for the amount of sex younger people are having. I've always attributed the story to the internet and social media. IE, Younger people are just getting their "fix" from and are addicted to something else and aren't bored in the same way older generations were when they were young.

Average of $105/month, that's much.

Now add other drugs to the chart

I wonder how much of a role palate refinement is for this trend. For example: Starbucks, for as terrible as their coffee is, did a lot to elevate the overall regard of coffee; bean juice was no longer just a bitter stew we tolerated to get our caffeine fix. Starbucks broke trail for craft coffee roasting more general popularity.

Could it be the same with alcoholic beverages? I used to think Maker's Mark was the best bourbon going. Now I know better, but so many of the craft bourbons are expensive or just plain hard to find. Ditto for my favorite hazy IPAs. Why binge drink the good stuff when your palate is going to be wrecked after three beers? And since I'm not going to drink swill, welp, guess I'm not going to get drunk tonight!

It looks like the collapse is due to men alone, which is interesting that it is only targeting one gender.

What’s with the spike for females? Wonder if it was political.

This graph is quite confusing and not beautiful. Months? Years? The words and numbers font correlate.

Crazy how well this correlates with the rise in depression, anxiety, and social media use in young people.

Binge drinking is obviously not the answer, but getting out and being uninhibited with other young people in the real world seems like a pretty important element of being young as well as being happy.

Alcohol was good enough for my viking ancestors so it's good enough for me.

i've been smoking pot since i was 13. i've switched to alcoholism over the last couple of years. if yall are gonna copy me, i'm gonna do something different.

signed, a 50 year old

Everyone saying it is due to weed or alcohol being expensive...how about if the youth today are simply smarter?

I'm old myself and I was old man shocked when I walked past a group of young preppy boys having fun with their mopeds and standing in the middle of the street yelling and playing loud music with six packs of beer all around.

However, that's not what shocked me: It was only when I saw that the six packs were 0%. Nevermind the racket, these kids were having fun without alcohol. Skibidi cray to you too.

Huh, I'm surprised there wasn't more of a spike due to COVID.

This is good! Well done, young people!

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It's still cool. It's just prohibitively expensive.

Incredible amount of alcoholics in these comments.

Kinda sad. No fun you can have like being shitfaced. When I look back on those times those are definitely the highlights. Feel sorry for the youth, they just aren't as fun.

Kind wish I grew up at an earlier date. The 90's and 00's looked so much fun and when I talk to older people I'm always jealous of their cool stories. Younger people don't see to have as much good stories, even accounting for time.