Wow, that’s a hell of a bar tab for excessive drinking, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, which just released the study, a first of its its kind in booze-soaked America. This head-pounding tab amounts to nearly $1,400/Minnesota resident. Uff da!

Most of the $8 billion comes in the form of lost productivity at work, or about $2.5 billion. The rest of the squandered treasure is from death, $1.7 billion; criminal justice, $959 million; health care, $915 million; and motor vehicle crashes comes it at a whopping $296 million. Ouch!

The study, as reported in the Star-Tribune newspaper, said binge drinking accounted for 75 percent of the carnage, no surprise to those of us in the fellowship of AA!

Now, Minnesota is adding THC to booze, whoa! Fire up the Big Books, keep the AA clubs open late and make some coffee, we AA’s have our work cut out for us!!! There is a solution Minnesota: free AA meetings. Meeting Makers Make It! It sure has worked for me, 35 years sober in October! Thanks AA!