Drinking in a manner that will cause intoxication clearly poses risks to the drinker.   A term frequently used to describe this pattern is binge drinking.  Different definitions have been used for this pattern of drinking. To provide clarification, the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NAC) in 2004 developed a standard definition for binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings the blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 gram percent (the legal limit for drinking and driving in all states) or above.  The NAC further noted that for a typical adult male, this BAC level may be obtained after the consumption of 5 drinks in a 2 hour period, and for females, 4 drinks in the same time period.  

Binge drinking is common across most life stages.  Fifty percent of college students who drink engage in binge drinking, and twenty percent do so twice or more every three weeks.  More than two-thirds of binge drinking episodes in the U.S. occur among adults age 26 and older, and half of all binge drinking episodes occur among people who otherwise drink moderately.