CISUR – Page 37 – Matters of Substance

When you think about spending a Saturday afternoon at the beach, golfing, boating, or snowmobiling, what else do you think about? For many Canadians, alcohol consumption is often associated with leisurely activities. Primarily, people tend to drink in social contexts – such as at bars or during recreational activities with friends. Unfortunately, recreational activities paired with alcohol consumption can also involve operation of motorized vehicles.

Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving: these dangers have been demonstrated by carefully controlled research studies showing that the risks of collisions, injuries and death increase dramatically with higher levels of drinking. For example, an individual with blood alcohol content (BAC) level of 0.2% is approximately 82 times more likely to be involved in a collision than their sober counterpart.

Yet, drinking and driving a car is only one of many activities that can be dangerous when consuming alcohol. One recent review paper on incidence of drowning found that between 30% and 70% of victims had been drinking prior to the accident. Moreover, having a BAC level of 0.1% while boating increases your risk of death by 10 times. Luckily, Canadians are increasingly aware of the risks of alcohol consumption around open water, with officials in some areas now strictly enforcing the consequences of bringing booze to the beach.

Alcohol not only affects a person’s recreational water activities, but their winter recreational activities as well. In a 5-year study of snowmobile-related deaths in Ontario, 69% of the 131 people who died while snowmobiling were under the influence of alcohol. Clearly, we need to increase Canadians’ awareness of the risks associated with impaired boating, snowmobiling or other recreational activities. Given that alcohol affects the central nervous system – thereby decreasing our inhibitions, increasing our reaction times, as well as affecting our vision, judgment, balance, and coordination – how can we ensure our leisure times are both fun and safe?

Should we continue to prohibit alcohol consumption on beaches and by waterways?

Authors, from left to right: Chantele Joordens, Scott Macdonald

Commonly seen and heard navigating down the corridor of an entertainment district are staggering patrons and their escalating aggression levels. When witnessed, incidents of alcohol-fueled violence may seem insignificant numerically; however, over the course of time the offences amount to substantial trauma and related legal costs. For example, a Canadian inmate study estimated that 28% of violent crimes reported to police are alcohol-associated¹. In British Columbia, this translates to 17,888 offences in 2012 and a startling figure of 211,683 police-reported incidents over the ten years previous². To see a striking visual illustration, visit the Victoria Police crime mapping portal and observe the concentration of assaults around the downtown entertainment district.

Behind these statistics, the alcohol-violence connection is complex and shaped by multiple factors: individual personalities, drinking environments, and social norms each having variable effects on human behaviour and drinking cultures. At the individual level it is hard to deny alcohol’s ability to impair judgement. Arguably this is the euphoric feeling (and the associated loss of fear or “Dutch Courage”) consumers seek. The same decrease in cognitive function also leads to increased risk of physical violence and victimization when intoxicated patrons interact (i.e., around bars, nightclubs, or liquor outlets). In fact, a research article considering 11, 563 injury cases from 45 different hospitals across 16 different countries found that intoxicated patients had a higher likelihood of violence-related injury than any other catalyst. Many studies have also linked decreases in the price of alcohol, increases in trading hours, and high alcohol outlet densities (on and off premise alcohol retailers per unit area or roadway) to greater rates of homicides, assaults, and domestic violence independent of demographic and socio-economic status³^&⁴. The only positive note is the consistently insignificant effect of restaurant liquor licenses on violence rates inferring that drinking with a meal and a small social group is mostly low risk.

Preventative measures to reduce the burden of alcohol-related violence are not out of reach for British Columbians. In fact, we have already come a long way in accepting evidence- based limits on pressing matters such as driving rights and public intoxication. Should we not consider the expediency of introducing fair pricing of higher alcohol content products, limiting late night sales of alcohol, and restricting alcohol outlet densities since these have been shown to reduce alcohol-related violence⁵^&⁶? Allowing alcohol prices to keep pace with inflation⁶, shortening the 9:00am to 4:00am hours of on-premise liquor sales, and creating population based restrictions on liquor establishment densities removing the pressure on municipal governments to assess and approve liquor licenses⁷ seem reasonable steps toward harm reduction.

Armed with this knowledge, what alcohol availability restrictions are we willing to accept in order to decrease related harms?

Author: Jessica Fitterer

Author: CISUR

Safety issues: Alcohol and… recreational activities?

What contributes to alcohol-related violence and how can we prevent it?