May 2006

 

STAYIN' ALIVE - The 2006 CYAID National Conference:
The Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving Conference

The Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving Conference, May 11 – 14, 2006, is considered the best Canadian motivational student leadership conference. It will have over 500 delegates from across the country. The Association to Reduce Alcohol Promotion in Ontario (ARAPO) will be hosting a media literacy workshop to help students think critically about alcohol and alcohol advertising. Also, there will be a presentation on the development of the Youth and Alcohol, Messages and Media campaign.

For more information, please see our Upcoming Events calendar.

Addictions Ontario Annual Conference:
Bridging the Gaps: Inspiration to Execution

The Addictions Ontario Annual Conference on June 5 – 6, 2006 offers various workshops discussing innovative and up-to-date research and emerging trends in the addiction field. The Association to Reduce Alcohol Promotion in Ontario (ARAPO) will be presenting on a workshop entitled: Alcohol Advertising Control Policies in Ontario and Public Health's Response. The effectiveness of existing alcohol control policies will be presented along with recommendations for public health. The Youth and Alcohol, Messages and Media Project, a risky-drinking social marketing campaign for youth, will be used as one example of a public health response.

For more information, please see our Upcoming Events calendar.

Upcoming APOLNET Teleconference:
Bar Policies for Customers and Staff, and the CAMH Safer Bars Program

The Alcohol Policy Network in collaboration with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is offering a teleconference on bar policies and programs. This teleconference will be moderated by Larry Grand, Projects Consultant with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

For background information on this topic see the listing under Teleconferences on the APOLNET website and see the following: Private Citizens Could Face Same Laws as Bars and Annotated Bibliographies - Aggression, Bar Policies and Programs below. After the teleconference, Larry Grand will be moderating listserv discussions from May 18-31, 2006 in order to facilitate information exchange on this topic.

Private Citizens Could Face Same Laws as Bars

Since 1999, many have been following the outcome of a lawsuit filed by Zoe Childs, an Ottawa-area woman who was 18 years old when a drunk driver smashed into the car she was riding in early on the morning of Jan. 1, 1999, killing her boyfriend and leaving her a paraplegic. [Court to rule if hosts are liable for drunk driving. Jim Brown, The Toronto Star, May 1, 2006]

Childs launched a civil suit claiming millions in damages against the drunk driver and the two hosts of the New Year's party.

The Supreme Court, in a landmark 1995 judgment, ruled bars, restaurants and other commercial purveyors of alcohol have a "duty of care" — not only to the people doing the drinking, but also to third parties such as the drivers they may encounter later on the highway. That means bar owners can be held liable if, for example, they keep serving an obviously drunk customer and do nothing to prevent them from driving home. A key issue in the Childs case is whether so-called social hosts — private citizens, as opposed to commercial establishments — are bound by the same rules.

The ruling on this lawsuit is expected this week.

Annotated Bibliographies – Aggression, Bar Policies and Programs

Hoaken, P. and Pihl, R. (2000). The effects of alcohol intoxication on aggressive responses in men and women. Alcohol & Alcoholism, 35(5), 471-477.

The authors, from the department of psychology at McGill University, studied the effects of intoxication on aggressive behaviours among men and women. Over 100 individuals participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either a non-alcoholic beverage or an alcohol beverage condition. The participants were then either exposed to a placebo condition or an aggression provocation experimental group.

The study revealed four items: 1) that aggression increased as provocation increased, regardless of gender and beverage; 2) intoxicated men were more aggressive than sober men; 3) intoxicated women were no more aggressive than sober women; and, 4) sober men are not more aggressive than sober women.

This study is consistent with other research that alcohol intoxication increases aggression among men. Additionally, this study shows that aggression among women is not influenced by intoxication – but calls into question indirect forms of aggression (e.g., gossiping, verbal insults) as a result of intoxication. This is an area where further research is needed.

Burns, E., Nusbaumer, M. and Reiling, D. (2003). Think they're drunk? Alcohol servers and the identification of intoxication. J. Drug Education, 33(2), 177-186.

The authors, researchers at the Indiana-Purdue University and Eastern Michigan University, used conducted a survey of over 2000 randomly selected licensed alcoholic beverage servers in the State of Indiana. The purpose of the inquiry was to determine what strategies servers perceive as important to use when identifying drunken customers.

Servers indicated that slurred speech was the most useful way to tell if someone is intoxicated. Other important indicators to servers included: disturbing others at the bar, number of drinks served, and clumsiness. Three of these four most important indicators (slurred speech, disruptions, and clumsiness) are behaviour based – and as a result are less reliable ways to identify intoxication.

The authors recommend that server training programs should include specific details on how to effectively assess legal intoxication; particularly using non-behavioural indicators (e.g., counting number of drinks served). The authors suggest additional research is needed to ascertain which indicators are most successful, considering the various settings and server styles.

This study also has implication for policy development. For example, house bar policies may want to include policies and procedures to outline how servers are to keep track of served drinks and how to deny service to intoxicated customers.

Grahm, K., Osgood, D., Zibrowski, E., Purcell, J., Gliksman, L., Leonard, K., Pernanen, K., Saltz, R. and Toomey, T. (2004). The effect of the Safer Bars programme on physical aggression in bars: Results of a randomized control trial. Drug and Alcohol Review, 23, 31-41.

The Safer Bars programme aims to reduce aggressive behaviours in bar establishments. The program consists of a risk assessment workbook for aggression and a 3-hour training program for bar employees. The program educates bar staff about the role of environment, staff behaviour, and consistent enforcement of bar policies in the occurrence of alcohol-related aggression. Also, the program provides suggestions and tailored examples in each of these areas that can help to reduce the risk of aggression.

Graham and her colleagues studied the effectiveness of the Safer Bars programme to reduce physical aggression in Toronto area bars. Twenty-six establishments received the intervention and 12 bars were observed as a comparison group. Pre- and post-intervention observations were conducted to measure various levels of aggression.

In general, the program appeared to have moderately reduced the number of aggressive occurrences in bars. Sever aggression (e.g., punching) and moderate aggression with a clear intent (e.g., shoving) decreased the greatest. Also, the study showed that a higher staff turn-over lowered the effect of the program.

Future revisions of the program may want to consider the above studies, in future improvements to the program. Servers need to be taught when to intervene, not just how to. Improvements may include components to train staff to effectively identify and manage intoxicated patrons, particularly intoxicated males, who are at increased risk of direct aggressive behaviours.