Alcohol Remains U.S. Deadliest Drug, Killing 178,000 Annually, Study Finds

STAT’s investigative series "The Deadliest Drug" catalogues the United States' failure to address excessive alcohol use as a leading cause of disease, injury and death.

Even as overall drinking rates have slipped, alcohol still causes more fatalities than opioids, fentanyl, methamphetamine or heroin, accounting for about 178,000 deaths each year.

The report stresses that heavy alcohol consumption fuels a wide-ranging epidemic of injuries, illnesses and mortality, yet the crisis remains largely unnoticed by the public, corporations, lawmakers and federal officials.