SF Named Third Drunkest City

Here's a distinction to make San Francisco proud: it's the third drunkest city in the nation, according to gossip site The Daily Beast.

How'd they figure that out? They used consumer research to determine the average number of drinks per person, then factored in rates of liver disease. According to their numbers, the average San Franciscan consumes about 12 drinks a month, and about 8 percent of residents are binge drinkers. And there's 7 alcoholic liver deaths for every 100,000 residents each year.

There's no word on how many ounces of pot the average San Franciscan drinks, how many are binge smokers, or how many die from cannabis-related illness. We're going to guess that the fatalities are somewhat lower.

Maybe the recent chilly weather has something to do with our high ranking on the list. Milwaukee and Fargo are the two cities ahead of us. Other top cities in include Burlington, VT, Anchorage, Minneapolis, Denver, and Spokane. Of course, Reno, Tampa, and Austin are on the list as well, so it would seem that all that's required to have a heavy-drinking populace is cold weather or a bunch of partying college students.

The news should come as a relief to the city's alcohol industry, which earlier this year fought to prevent the implementation of an alcoholism mitigation fee. That fee would have collected a few cents per drink to fund treatment programs for the chronic inebriates that the industry helped to create.