Growing Problem: Binge Drinking (?)

Sometimes I wonder how growing problems are really defined. I suppose a problem can be a growing problem for a time, transition into becoming a lessening problem, and then head back to growing again when things get worse. Or is it just an average thing, where most of the time it's getting worse even though sometimes it's getting better, so we just all agree as a society that it's a growing problem?

What got me wondering is the fact that this article calls binge drinking a growing problem. As far as I am aware, binge drinking has been a problem at least as long as I have been alive, if not longer. It's just a fact- the kids, they like to drink too much. 

However, what gets me is that binge drinking is always called a growing problem, not just a problem. The implication is that kids must be constantly drinking more, or at least the number of kids who are drinking too much must be growing constantly. I just don't see how a problem could grow so slowly for thirty-plus years that it can remain growing, and not have reached some kind of plateau.

Are we constantly adding just one or two new binge drinkers per year or something? Or is the population just growing at a rate that is faster than the growth rate of binge drinkers, meaning the rate can never catch up, providing an endless supply of worsening statistics?

Okay, I think you get the picture. My point is that if a problem is going to be given the status of perennially growing worse, it had better be backed up by some solid statistics that satisfy me, or I shall call shenanigans, because that's just the kind of tight ship I run in my brain.

A side note- if eventually every kid does become a binge drinker, the only way for the problem to continue growing is if all the kids drink more at a sitting, or drink too much more often. That will be hard to keep up, and at this point we may blessedly see the end of the binge drinking growing problem, and instead enter the golden age of a mere binge drinking chronic problem. Life will be sweet!

Binge Drinking A Growing Problem (KELO Sioux Falls)

Minnesota lawmakers are looking at legislation to stop binge drinking, after heavy drinking in recent months played a role in the deaths of three college students.