In the U.S., alcohol consumption remains widespread, with nearly half the population aged 12 or older reporting that they consumed alcohol within the past month.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, explores the scale of drinking behavior across America, including how many people drink, binge drink, or engage in heavier levels of alcohol use, using data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as of 2024.

How Many Americans Drink Alcohol Regularly?

Out of the 288.8 million Americans aged 12 or older, 134 million (46.5%) reported drinking alcohol at least once in the past 30 days.

The data table below shows the number of regular alcohol drinkers in the U.S., along with binge drinkers and heavy drinkers.

Binge drinkers are defined as those who consumed five or more drinks (four for women) on one occasion, and heavy drinkers are those who engaged in binge drinking at least five times in the past 30 days.

Despite alcohol drinkers making up nearly half of the U.S. population of those aged 12 or older, the share in 2024 (46.5%) has declined slightly since 2022 when it was 48.7%.

The Number of Binge and Heavy Drinkers in the U.S.

Of the 134.3 million alcohol drinkers in the U.S., 57.9 million people engaged in binge drinking, which represents 20.1% of the total population and 43.1% of all alcohol users.

This reveals a significant overlap between casual use and occasional high-risk consumption, highlighting how binge drinking behavior is deeply embedded within the broader drinking population.

Heavy alcohol users—those who binge drink on at least five days in the past month—number 14.5 million in America. This represents 5% of the total population above 12 years old and 10.8% of alcohol users.

While this group is much smaller than the broader categories of alcohol and binge drinkers, heavy drinkers make up one quarter of all binge drinkers, and account for one in every 10 regular alcohol drinkers in the country.

To learn more about alcohol consumption in the U.S., check out this graphic which breaks down which U.S. states drink the most beer.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Putin will visit India late next week to meet with Modi for their annual summit, the first time that the Russian leader will travel to India since the special operation began, his last one being in December 2021.

Aleksei Zakharov, a Fellow at India’s esteemed Observer Research Foundation, published a detailed article about how “Key Policy Outcomes Expected at the India-Russia Summit”.

It’s an excellent read, but it omits mention of their large-scale labor migration talks, which might lead to a deal next week.

Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retired), the former Director-General of the Center for Air Power Studies in New Delhi, published an intriguing piece about this at RT in early November.

He noted how both countries representatives “discussed potential collaboration on social and labor issues”, contextualizing their conversation by adding that Russia “plans to recruit up to 1 million foreign workers – including from India. The Russian Labor Ministry estimates the shortfall could expand to 3.1 million workers by 2030.”

He makes a lot of compelling arguments about how India could help resolve this dimension of “Russia’s demography problem”, but what’s left out is how its labor migrants pose less of a security risk than Russia’s traditional ones from Central Asia. Conor Gallagher touched upon this in early November in his extensively detailed analysis about the US’ evolving strategy towards that region. From this point here near the end for the next several paragraphs, he describes Russia’s new approach towards migration.

Not only is Russia “getting rid of 700,000-plus migrants, mostly Central Asians, a process which was jumpstarted by the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in outer Moscow in March 2024”, but “the Concept of State Migration Policy for 2026-2030…focuses not on increasing the population through Central Asian citizens, but on strengthening control, digitalization, and the task of attracting only those migrants who share the ‘traditional spiritual and moral values’ of Russian society.”

Putin spoke about the security threats posed by “the migration factor” in early November during a meeting with the Council on Interethnic Relations where they discussed ways to fine-tune the State Interethnic Policy, the updated version of which was then approved by month’s end. It’s not declared, but the innuendo is that Central Asian Muslims are at a greater risk of radicalism and being manipulated by foreign forces than other labor migrants such as Indians (both Muslims and especially Hindus).

It’s within this economic-security context that Russia is exploring a large-scale migrant labor deal with India that might be clinched during the Putin-Modi Summit. To be clear, recent policy changes won’t lead to Indians playing a role in “population replacement”, only in labor replacement since most likely won’t be offered a path to residency and then citizenship. The sole purpose is for Indians to meet Russia’s labor shortage in lieu of Central Asian Muslims in exchange for profitable remittance opportunities.

Indians are among the most Russian-friendly people in the world as proven by credible surveys, and unlike Central Asian Muslims, they harbor no historical grievances (whether objectively existing or subjectively perceived) that could be manipulated by foreign forces to weaponize them against Russia.

Their society is also proudly secular and this makes them much less likely to be radicalized into terrorists.

It therefore wouldn’t be surprising if Putin clinches a large-scale labor migration deal with Modi.

The First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Vermont announced that on November 24, 2025, Chief Judge Christina Reiss sentenced Serhat Gumrukcu, 43, of Los Angeles—formerly the “scientific founder”, “inventor” and largest shareholder of publicly listed Enochian Biosciences, which eventually became Renovaro—to life in prison for the January 6, 2018, murder-for-hire of Gregory Davis in Barnet, Vermont.

Gumrukcu was first brought to the attention of market participants by former short seller Hindenburg Research back in 2022 who called his company a $600 million Nasdaq-listed scam “based on a lifetime of lies”. 

A jury convicted him in April 2025 of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the DOJ. 

Gumrukcu had formerly been praised by Enochian (then Renovaro) CEO Mark Dybul – who once worked under Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Health – with Dybul writing in November 2019 that he was “one of those rare geniuses that is not bound by scientific discipline or dogma”. Hindenburg then accused Dybul of turning a “blind eye to outrageous fraud” perpetrated by Gumrukcu in a stunning follow up report after the “inventor’s” death. 

The Department of Justice press release says that his co-conspirators were sentenced in September 2025: Berk Eratay received 110 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release; Aron Ethridge received 140 months followed by five years of supervised release; and Jerry Banks received 200 months followed by five years of supervised release.

According to prosecutors, Gumrukcu ordered Davis’s killing because Davis threatened legal action over a failed oil-commodities deal that was also the basis of Gumrukcu’s wire-fraud conviction. Gumrukcu also feared that Davis would interfere with a biotech merger involving his claimed HIV “cure.”

Evidence showed that Eratay enlisted Ethridge, who then hired Banks. On January 6, 2018, Banks posed as a Deputy U.S. Marshal and abducted Davis from his Vermont home; Davis’s body was found the next day nearby. Communications, financial records, and location data documented the dispute between Gumrukcu and Davis and tied Gumrukcu, Eratay, Ethridge, and Banks to the crime.

At sentencing, Melissa Davis, the victim’s widow, thanked investigators and prosecutors. She praised the Vermont State Police “for every call, every update,” the FBI for its “coordination across state lines” and “relentless pursuit of truth,” and the prosecution team whose “strength, commitment, and unwavering pursuit of justice…will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

She said she often felt proud in court, “knowing God had appointed each of you to pursue justice for Gregg,” and also expressed gratitude to her victim advocate, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Chief Judge Reiss.

A supposed mind-reading magician turned biomedical entrepreneur, Gumrukcu mingled with Hollywood elites and earned millions through unconventional medical ventures. But during his five-week trial in Burlington, he faced a far different spotlight—three days on the witness stand, denying involvement in the 2018 murder-for-hire of former business partner Gregory Davis.

Though he claimed innocence, Gumrukcu admitted under oath to lying to authorities and said he’d told “so many lies” in past deals he couldn’t remember them all. He acknowledged buying a fake medical degree from Russia, calling it “cheating,” and described his younger self as “arrogant,” advocating unorthodox treatments like leeches and mistletoe.

As part of their investigation into Enochian and Gumrukcu, Hindenburg Research ordered the very same degree to prove that it was fake back in 2022. 

Way back when, @HindenburgRes published on Enochian Biosciences, now Renovaro $RENB. Their scientific genius, Serhat Gumrukcu, just took the stand this week to deny he hired someone to murder a dude he defrauded. But he DID admit, just as Hindenburg uncovered, that he bought a… pic.twitter.com/G7cfLCV1zB

— Codfish Johnny (@CodfishJohnny) April 17, 2025

Prosecutors argued Gumrukcu had Davis killed to prevent him from exposing fraud tied to a failed oil deal—one that could have derailed a lucrative biomedical contract with Enochian BioSciences.

“Gregg Davis was a problem for the defendant,” said prosecutor Paul Van de Graaf. “It was the defendant who paid for the murder.”

Van de Graaf outlined how Gumrukcu financed the $200,000 plot, with testimony from three co-conspirators, including former assistant Berk Eratay. Eratay claimed Gumrukcu told him he wanted to “get rid of a problem,” prompting Eratay to enlist others, including hitman Jerry Banks. Banks testified he posed as a U.S. marshal, kidnapped Davis, and executed him in rural Vermont.

Defense attorney Ethan Balogh argued it was Eratay who “ran the op,” not Gumrukcu. He said the funds were meant for a cryptocurrency project and portrayed Davis as untrustworthy. Balogh accused the three key witnesses—who took plea deals to avoid life sentences—of lying to save themselves: “These men were all going to die in the cage.”

Prosecutors countered that none of them had a reason to kill Davis—except Gumrukcu. As Van de Graaf said, even “peaceful” men can outsource their violence.

As Hindenburg noted in a subsequent report, the story of Gumrukcu’s rise and fall, up to awaiting trial was chronicled in a podcast produced by Amazon’s Wondery (Spotify, Apple).