I wonder how legal marijuana ties in? I know plenty of people that have switched.

Americans drinking "alcohol". I thought this was about depletion of potable water.

Cocktails, on average, are like $15.

What did the industry expect?

Americans' disposable income and time remains at record low: Sofa Poll

There are so many other ways to self medicate now! Why be a lonely drunk when you can be a social media trolling energy drink swilling porn addicted sports gambler

I suspect there is more to this story. Post pandemic, I wonder if there are more people drinking on their lonesome as a coping strategy with fewer people drinking socially because it is too expensive to do so.

My father was in the former category, and ultimately it was alcohol that killed him. He thought he was a moderate drinker, not an alcoholic, and I doubt he would have self-reported drinking 'heavily' with his beer-goggles on. As far as he was concerned, he had always enjoyed a glass of wine with a meal, to have spirits as a 'night cap' and beer on sunny afternoons.

I saw the progression, and I went the other way, from 'enjoying' a drink on special occasions, always socially, never home alone, to complete abstinence. I decided that I no longer wanted to enable the alcohol dependent person by drinking, or have the health complications.

Looking back on the drinking I have done over the years, it was always people that brought me pleasure, not that vile alcohol stuff that brought us together. Motivation for going to the pub was meeting certain people, not drinking particular beverages.

As you can imagine, I am going to gleefully report 'I never touch that poison' to a pollster, whereas my father would never report drinking more than he used to, because he didn't see what was going on with his liver (and wallet).

I'd love to see the drinking stats for male millennials over the past 15 to 20 years. I bet there's a big drop as they age out of prime beer drinking age and start moving into middle age. I say this as I'm part of that demographic, and I hardly drink anymore after having one or 2 craft beers a night in my 20s.

Edit: The downturn in drinking has huge ramifications for restaurants as they make a lot of profit on alcohol.