If young people devoted as much time to their professions as they did to drinking, they would be leaders in their fields, a lobby group says.
Hello Sunday Morning says 18 to 28-year-olds who drink twice a week will spend approximately 10,000 hours drinking over that period.
HSM business development manager Jamie Moore says the alcohol culture in Australia is producing a generation of drinking experts.
But he believes alcohol is such an intrinsic part of Australian culture that people no longer see it as a choice.
"When we drink we don't just have a couple of drinks, we drink for six to eight hours," Mr Moore said.
"From books and research we know professional athletes and people who study a particular field say it takes them about 10,000 hours to perfect a skill or to become an expert.
"We're becoming expert drinkers."
It is that culture of drinking that HSM - an online collective and lobby group that encourages taking a break from alcohol - is attempting to break.
Mr Moore will discuss this issue at a public lecture in Sydney on Thursday where he will be joined by National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre director professor Michael Farrell.
The name of the lecture, Can We Halt the Binge Drinking Juggernaut? indicates how serious they believe the problem has become.
Professor Farrell fears young people think they are "bulletproof".
The latest National Drug Strategy survey found about one in six people aged over 14 put themselves at risk of an alcohol-related injury at least once a week.
For males aged 18 to 19, about two-thirds put themselves at risk of an alcohol-related injury at least once a month.
"They're not just drinking more, but the drinking episodes are heavier than they were," Professor Farrell said.
Mr Moore said the problem is not confined to young people.
HSM has members ranging in age from 18 to their 70s.
"In our eyes alcohol is not a choice, it's a cultural expectation," he said.
