GEOFF BENNETT: Alcohol is one of
the leading causes of preventable deaths in the U.S. Every year, more
people die of alcohol-related causes than drug overdoses. But problems
with alcohol often go overlooked. William Brangham looks at how
this is affecting the western part of the country, and one state in particular. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While alcohol is problematic
everywhere, Colorado has one of the highest rates of alcohol-related deaths in the country. Drinking
deaths in the state spiked 6
0 percent between 2018 and 2021. In 2022, more than 1,500 people
in the state died from excessive drinking, a slight decline from earlier, but that is
still 50 percent above pre-pandemic levels. When you also take into account deaths from
chronic long-term conditions related to alcohol, the death toll doubles, a number that far
exceeds the deaths from opioids. But as The Denver Post reported in a new four-part
series, alcohol has not been treated with the same urgency as opioids. That serie
s
is called "Colorado's Quiet Killer." And reporter Meg Wingerter joins me now. Meg, thank you so much for being here. Your series is titled the "Quiet
Killer." Why do you refer to it as quiet? MEG WINGERTER, The Denver Post: It's quiet in the
sense that it hasn't generated much attention. We hear about the number of people who are dying
of opioids, which, of course, is a massive killer that we need to pay attention to. But there's
not really the awareness that alcohol can also be deadly. W
hen I was writing this series and
interviewing people, other than people who specifically study alcohol, there was just not
really this awareness that the death toll could be anything comparable, because, well, I mean,
it's not something people talk about very much. Most -- many people would really rather
not admit if excessive drinking was what killed their loved one. So we
just don't have the conversation. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: When we talk about
categorizing deaths from alcohol, can you bre
ak those down for us? Are
we talking about accidents where people are intoxicated? Is this chronic
conditions? What are these deaths? MEG WINGERTER: I'm glad you asked that,
because, when I was interviewing people, often, what would come up is, they
would assume that this was a lot of people dying in crashes or young people
drinking themselves to death in one night. But what it is mostly is longer-term conditions,
a lot of liver disease, some cancers, some heart conditions, deaths by suici
de where people
were intoxicated at the time, which makes you more impulsive, more likely to follow through
in suicide if you were having those thoughts. So it does look different than what
people expect. Accidents are a problem, but they're not the biggest source of the problem. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Are there things
that public health experts told you might help for the state to do
to help bring these deaths down? MEG WINGERTER: Well, there's no one magic thing
that, if we do this, it will b
ring -- make a huge impact on deaths, but there are a lot
of small things that can nudge people. When alcohol taxes go up, people tend to somewhat
reduce their consumption. When alcohol is not as convenient, people also will tend to drink a
little bit less. There are cultural things, trying to give people alternatives and kind of normalize
events where drinking isn't at the center of it. Now, none of those is going
to completely fix the problem, but they each kind of give people a nudge
to
ward reducing their consumption, which, over time, adds up to fewer people
developing these chronic conditions. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, alcohol, as your
reporting shows, is so ingrained in our culture. Even though we are in the middle of Dry January, I mean, it's kind of notable that we even
have a month where we try to drink less as a culture. Were you surprised overall by
the things that you found in your series? MEG WINGERTER: Yes. I had actually just kind of stumbled across
these numb
ers on alcohol-related deaths and looked at those, and that seemed high,
compared it to the overdoses. But as I started talking to people more about the number of
conditions that it's involved in, it makes sense. The odds an average drinker will die
from alcohol are much lower than the odds an average illicit fentanyl user will
die from the substance they're using. But so many people drink that it then adds
up to this very large toll. And it is uncomfortable to talk about in a way that
ill
icit drugs are not, because so many of us enjoy having a drink and don't necessarily
want to hear that it could be a problem. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that
is Meg Wingerter of The Denver Post. Thank you so much for sharing
your reporting with us. MEG WINGERTER: Thank you for having me.
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