The fact that everyone's drunk at the meetup means that if you are not drunk, it is considerably harder to have fun and be on the "same page" as the people who are drunk. This forces people who would otherwise be left out to drink as well.

Obviously this is a problem, can we start making some small mutual pacts to stop drinking at meetups? I suppose this would be fine once a week, but the fact that it happens all the time is troublesome. This is why weekday meetups are often dead.