November 2005

The Toronto Drug Strategy

Released on October 14th, The Toronto Drug Strategy is a comprehensive approach to alcohol and other drugs in the City of Toronto. As reported in the Globe and Mail [October 14, 2005, A18], the Strategy Report proposes a comprehensive strategy based on four components: prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and enforcement.

"We need to step up our efforts, especially in prevention and harm reduction," Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, said of the Drug Strategy. "The report sets a direction that will contribute to improving community safety and building stronger neighbourhoods," McKeown adds.

Councillor Kyle Rae, who sat on the drug strategy advisory committee adds, "This report balances the interests of public health and public order. I am proud of what we have accomplished together and we now need to build on the excellent work behind these recommendations."

The 66 recommendations [PDF] are organized by seven key themes including Neighbourhood and Communities; Youth; Research and Evaluation, among four other categories. Recommendations were identified during public consultations involving more than 350 people in Town Hall meetings, focus groups, and the Drug Strategy Advisory Committee, which included Toronto Police and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, among others.

Next steps regarding implementation of alcohol and drug policies in Toronto will stem from the report that was presented to the Toronto Board of Health at its meeting on Monday, October 24th.

Bar Games

"If you win, you win. If you lose, you drink," a college student featured in a recent New York Times article on Bar Games succinctly summed up. "There's no negative."

Drinking games at bars are incredibly popular in the States among college students, according to four recent academic studies that surveyed more than 6,000 students nationwide. The studies found that 50 to 80 percent of college students are involved with drinking games either before or at the bar. With the primary goal of getting very drunk very quick, such games are making public health professionals take notice as such games can lead to alcohol poisoning, drunken-driving crashes, and may increase sexual assaults claim alcohol prevention experts.

Perhaps even more disturbing, is some of these bar games are sponsored by brewers, at times attracting crowds of hundreds. For example, Miller Brewing Company supplied prizes and "Miller girl" models for a four-day beer pong tournament earlier this year. Additionally, Anheuser-Busch has been promoting Bud Pong competitions since July, supplying tables, balls and glasses to wholesalers across the United States.

The concept of beer pong tournaments is simple. Players on one team try to sink a ball into another team's liquid-filled cups. If successful, the opposing team must drink.

Drink what exactly?

Anheuser-Busch say the game's instructions call for water to be consumed during play, not beer, which is the company's main product, reports USA Today.

Public health concerns stem from the fact that this clarification of instructions to use water is rarely received or practiced among participants. College students seem to have there own reasons for participating, as one student highlights the seemingly obvious: "The point of drinking games is to get as lit (drunk) as possible."

Aimar McQueeney, a sales representative for a Miller distributor, seems to expect this occurance. "It's the perfect demographic. It's mostly college kids pounding pitchers of beer."

After poor media coverage, Anheuser-Busch was reported as ending its promotions around Bud Pong. However, as Chuck Hurley, Chief Executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving wisely observes, "Their withdrawal of the Bud Pong promotion would be more impressive if it hadn't followed the bad press they received for this irresponsible marketing promotion."

Although bar games in Ontario have not received recent media attention, some public health organizations such as St. Thomas Elgin Public Health Unit and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health are working to implement policies and programs to make bars safer.

The Alcohol Policy Network hosted a teleconference on The Safe and Legal Service of Alcohol: Bar Policies for Customers and Staff, which generated much discussion on the listserv, and reference documents, such as To Serve or Not to Serve [PDF]. In addition, our website has links to many resource on the related issue of Liquor Licencing, including Research Papers, Policy/Position Papers, and Programs/Intervention strategies.