Nebraska must act against excessive drinking [Video]

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, but what do Nebraskans know about excessive alcohol consumption, its impact on our health, and its impact on the health and safety of our neighborhoods?

For starters, we know that Nebraska is consistently one of the worst states for binge drinking (drinking 4+ drinks for women and 5+ for men on an occasion). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are currently the seventh-worst binge drinking state in the country. This is consequential because binge drinking is responsible for a significant percentage of the harms we experience as a state.

One of those harms is cancer, which is why the state’s most recent comprehensive cancer control plan prioritized achieving a 2% reduction in our adult binge drinking rate by June 2021 — from 19.5 to 17.5%. Unfortunately, we did not achieve that objective. Truthfully, we didn’t even come close. Our binge drinking …