April 2009

 

Alcohol and Violence

Violence in Toronto's Entertainment District continues to persist even after a local initiative was held several months back to raise the awareness of alcohol and violence in the area. The event, "Raising the Bar: Toronto Summit on Nightlife, Drinking and Violence" was co-sponsored by the City of Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto Police Service (TPS), the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the Toronto Entertainment District BIA, and Montana Restaurant and Bar. This article will look at some of the current research that examines alcohol and violence, the local effect of alcohol and violence, the initiatives that are currently being used, and the recommendations by police, the AGCO, and Public Health.

Research

Researchers from across the world have demonstrated that alcohol-fueled violence is not unique to Toronto. In fact, a 2006 study from Australia’s Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre found that, "across Melbourne, the three types of outlets examined — hotel pubs, bars, and packaged liquor outlets — all had positive relationships to assault rates." The study determined that increased alcohol density led to increased violence in both suburbs and urban centres.

Additionally, Paul Gruenwald the from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) found that "the regulation of alcohol outlets in violence-prone areas clearly is an important step to reducing crime".

Finally, Canadian researcher Dr. Joel Ray and colleagues found that "the risk of being hospitalized because of a violent assault is higher among individuals who live near alcohol outlets with rising sales". For more information on Dr. Ray’s paper, please refer to the APN teleconference Alcohol Sales and Risk of Serious Assault.

Local effect of alcohol and violence

The Toronto Entertainment District [PDF] occupies approximately 50 clubs in the area bordered by Spadina Avenue east to Simcoe St., and Queen St. West south to Lakeshore Blvd. In addition to the clubs, the district also includes numerous hotels and the Rogers Centre sports stadium. There are also approximately 17 clubs that dot the nearby neighborhood that are not officially part of the Entertainment District but still contribute to the rising crime rates.

From common news reports on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Torontonians can expect to hear about a shooting [PDF], stabbing [PDF], or drug bust [PDF] occurring in the entertainment district. The Toronto Police Service released data* at the "Raising the Bar" forum as it relates to policing the entertainment district:

• 140 police officers in the entertainment district over each weekend
• 2600 Liquor License Act offences**
• 7700 parking tickets**
• 4000 tows**
• 400 arrests**
• 22,000 police hours**
• $900,000.00 in pay**
• $150,000.00 in OT pay**
• $2,000,000.00 to police the district** (approximate)
• 63 police injuries**

*  All data from Toronto Police representative at the 2008 Raising the Bar forum
** All data is from January–October, 2008

In addition to policing costs, the AGCO provided data at the Raising the Bar forum as it relates to alcohol licensing in Ontario:

• 18,000 Licensed establishments in Ontario
• 70,000 Special Occasion Permits
• 65 liquor license agents
• “most clubs in the Entertainment District are at level 1” with respect to Risk Based Licensing (Level 1 is the highest risk of a 4-level grading system)

Who's Concerned?

Due to the complexity of the challenges in the Entertainment District, there are numerous initiatives that are being executed by various stakeholders. The TPS monitor the area with regularity and include police presence during the weekends. Additionally, there is a police camera in the area to monitor any incidents that may take place. Lastly, the TPS has recently implemented the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) — a plan to reduce violence and fear within the Entertainment District.

The AGCO has also developed “Risk-Based Licensing.” Risk-based licensing allows the AGCO to encourage good business practices throughout the industry and strategically focus resources where they will make the most difference. Risk-based licensing was introduced in 11 Ontario municipalities in July 2008 (Phase One); the second phase of this program was implemented in January 2009, where transfer of licences and challenges to liquor licences were processed under risk-based licensing. The final phase will take effect this fall, when liquor license renewals will fall under the risk-based licensing.

The King-Spadina Residents Association (KSRA) was created in 2004 in response to the escalating issues in the Entertainment District. KSRA is an umbrella organization that provides strategic and tactical support for the entire King-Spadina community on night club and liquor licence-related issues.

The business component in the Entertainment District has undergone some changes in the past few months. The creation of a business improvement area (BIA) was finalized in 2008. The Toronto Entertainment BIA is part of a broader view of Toronto known as Toronto Area Business Improvement Areas (TABIA). The Toronto Entertainment BIA acknowledges that there are some challenges currently in the Entertainment District including “crime arising from the high concentration of night clubs within a relatively small area”.

Recommendations

During the "Raising the Bar" forum, several stakeholders presented various recommendations for the Entertainment District. Representatives from the AGCO recommended that bar owners and managers set up surveillance systems for better security. The Toronto Police Service recommended that most bars and clubs increase the number of security staff and improve their training since the majority of clubs are under staffed resulting in security challenges. The TPS also recommended that the area be a "glassless" district, which means that alcoholic beverages can only be served in plastic cups or aluminum beer cans.

In addition to these enforcement recommendations, researchers and public health practitioners accept the CAMH "Safer Bars" program as a successful training initiative for all bar staff.

For more information on the role alcohol plays in violence, the Alcohol Policy Network and the Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre will be co-hosting a teleconference on Alcohol and Violence: Raising the Bar. Held on May 5, from 10:00-11:00 a.m., the teleconference will be led by Dr. Kathryn Graham of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Western Ontario.

Alcohol's Effect on Seniors: Perception vs Reality

For those who attended the October 2008 APN teleconference, Alcohol and Seniors, facilitated by Charmaine Spencer of the University of Victoria, you may remember that some of her recommendations to Public Health was to include alcohol and seniors programming in other public health arenas, including injury and falls, drunk driving, and pharmacology dynamics.

It seems that a University of Florida researcher has acted on one recommendation. Rebecca Gilbertson and colleagues studied the ways in which the imbiber of the beverage interprets alcohol’s effects on their performance. Specifically, Gilbertson wanted to investigate whether seniors who had drunk alcoholic beverages could perform the same visual motor coordination tests as younger participants. Her methodology included:

1. Researchers recruited 42 adults ranging between 50 and 74 years old, and 26 adults aged 25 - 35;
2. Participants were randomly assigned to drink either a moderate amount of alcohol or a nonalcoholic "placebo" beverage;
3. Each person in the alcohol group was given enough to drink to achieve the same blood alcohol level across participants;
4. In order to gauge visual-motor coordination, planning, and the ability to move from one thought to the next, all participants completed the Trail Making Test. The test requires takers to connect numbered and lettered dots, in order, as quickly as possible;
5. Participants took the test twice: 25 minutes and 75 minutes after drinking.

The researchers found that:

• Older adults in the alcohol group performed more poorly on the first test than their younger counterparts did;
• This difference was not seen in the placebo group;
• When asked to self-assess how they felt, the older drinkers thought they were less impaired.

The importance of this study is that, while in a university lab a few seconds difference in completing one task over another may not be terribly important, when driving on a 400 series highway the difference between a safe drive home from a dinner party and being airlifted to a local hospital can be determined by a matter of seconds.

While the researchers did not hypothesize what caused these conclusions, they did say that it was not due to alcohol metabolism. Additionally, Gilbertson recommends that if you are a senior and you've gone out to dinner and consumed alcohol, "Sit around for a while and let the alcohol metabolize. Don't drink and run — stay and have dessert."

To build on Gilbertson’s research and recommendations, the Alcohol Policy Network recommends that all Ontarians that consume alcohol consider implementing the Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines into their social gatherings.