It is a drug that kills nearly 500 Americans every day, and causes more deaths in a typical year than every infectious disease combined. It is manufactured abroad and domestically, then sold by powerful multinational organizations with a vast network of distributors.
Its promoters can appear indifferent to its addictive and ruinous properties.  For decades — for centuries, really — it has destroyed lives, torn apart families, stunted the economy, and caused millions of deaths. Yet alcohol, by far the most popular and most harmful mind-altering substance in the U.S., is not seen as a public health emergency.
Alcohol is central to American life because of its social and cultural benefits to the many people who drink without issue. But alcohol’s ubiquity persists in the face of mountains of research linking heavy drinking to cancer, heart disease, stroke, cognitive decline, developmental disorders, gun violence, injuries, and countless other consequences.
Alcohol-related injuries, disease, and fatalities have spiked in recent years, starting in 2020.
STAT News published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 12 May 2026.
The item focuses on STAT+: Alcohol is wreaking havoc on U.S.
public health.
American society looks the other way.
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