The article defines “binge drinking” later on:

> In the UK, a binge is considered as drinking six or more units of alcohol in one sitting for women, and eight or more for men. That is two large glasses of wine for a woman.

That is not a socially outlandish amount of alcohol to consume.

4 pints? That's just "taking the edge off"

"Binging" is also not socially outlandish. There's a lot of room between "social drinking" and "socially outlandish drinking".