Dry 2025? This State Wants its Residents to Give Up or Reduce Alcohol Consumption in The New Year

This state is urging its residents to quit or seriously cut back on drinking in 2025. (Photo: Maximilian Schönherr/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

CNY Central reported on Monday that the New York Department of Health issued a press release encouraging residents of the Big Apple to decrease their alcohol consumption or eliminate it entirely in 2025.

“If your New Year’s resolution revolves around improving your physical and mental health, decreasing or cutting out alcohol is an optimal place to start,” State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, according to the release. “Drinking less alcohol or choosing not to drink can improve one’s health and well-being. As we approach the New Year together, our goal is to keep all New Yorkers out of harm’s way. Reducing alcohol consumption is one way this can be made possible.”

The release shared that one in five adult New Yorkers engaged in binge drinking and that incidents of binge drinking jumped up from 14.9% in 2021 to 16.6% in 2022.

As far as demographics, the organization claimed that White adults were more likely to engage in binge drinking or heavy drinking than other racial and ethnic groups, and smokers were particularly vulnerable.

The press release highlighted the long-term effects of heavy drinking, which included depression and anxiety in addition to other chronic health problems. The organization also shared that excessive alcohol use contributes to over 8,000 deaths a year.

Governments all over the world are beginning to reconsider their stance on alcohol consumption, thanks to a study from the World Health Organization that shared that no amount of alcohol was safe in December 2022.

“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use,” said Regional Advisor for Alcohol and Illicit Drugs at the WHO Regional Office for Europe Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges in a statement. “It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is.”

In August, health officials in the United Kingdom were urged by the Institute of Alcohol Studies to keep professionals in the liquor industry at a distance while revising their liquor policy guidelines.

The reason? A serious conflict of interest.

“Just like tobacco companies, alcohol companies have a long history of disrupting and delaying health policy, which is why the World Health Organization advises governments to protect against undue influence from the alcohol industry,” Institute of Alcohol Studies Chief Executive Dr. Katherine Severi said, according to The Guardian. “Alcohol companies, trade bodies and industry-funded groups should be treated in a similar way to the tobacco industry, with all interactions a matter of public record and discussions limited to implementation of policies that have been developed in the public interest.”