September 2008

en francais

 

From Binge to Extreme Drinking

Most in the substance abuse prevention field are familiar with the term "binge drinking". Defined by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), binge drinking is a minimum of 4 drinks for women or 5 drinks for men per occasion.

However, in more recent years, the term "extreme drinking" has been used to describe the drinking habits of some high school and college-aged youth. Extreme drinking goes way beyond the minimum threshold for binge drinking, notes Dr. Aaron White from Duke University Medical Center. He adds that extreme drinking doubles or even triples the usual minimum amounts of binge drinking we are familiar with.

Experts are also currently working to determine whether this type of extreme drinking, also referred to as heavy episodic binge drinking, is a kind of alcoholism.

"We think of alcoholism as chronic drunken behaviour," says Thomas Brown, an addictions specialist and professor at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine. "But the idea of this sporadic, very heavy drinking is something we're becoming increasingly concerned about".

The Addiction Services of Nova Scotia have found extreme drinking a problem area with those ages 19-29. They define extreme drinking as drinking more than your body can handle, which can put you at risk of passing out, memory loss, impaired judgment, blackouts, vomiting, injury, and alcohol overdose. With the tagline: The amount of alcohol it takes for you to pass out is dangerously close to the amount it takes to kill you, the Addiction Services of Nova Scotia released a marketing and educational campaign touting the dangers of extreme drinking along with suggested safety strategies.

In conjunction with the amount of alcohol consumed, the type of party, and who is in attendance will affect the amount of booze a person drinks. Researchers from the Center for Substance Abuse Research [PDF] at the University of Maryland showed that students who attended a party where alcohol was available were more likely to report getting drunk than those attending parties where alcohol was not available (10.5% vs. 0.5%). Other party factors related to being drunk [PDF] included the size of the party (larger parties), the location of the party (tailgating, fraternity house, off-campus near the university), and the number of friends the student attended the party with (larger number of friends).

It should be noted here that extreme and binge drinking isn’t just for the male population anymore. Past thinking generally held young males at a greater risk of binge drinking than females, however reports from CAMH [PDF] (2007) have shown that there is no significant difference between males and females in regards to binge drinking (27%; 25%); drunkenness (25%; 24%); or hazardous drinking (19%; 18%).

Similarly, acording to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, four in 10 women ages 18 and 19 consume five or more alcoholic beverages in a typical drinking session, compared to about five in 10 men of the same age. Among females aged 15 to 24, one in 10 engages in weekly binge boozing versus about two in 10 males in that same demographic.

"We're encouraging girls to make their mark in what was traditionally seen as more male-specific behavioural patterns, including heavy drinking," says Thomas Brown of McGill University.

As the 2008-2009 school year is now upon us, it would be a good time for schools to look at their policies in regards to alcohol availability and discipline related to misuse, along with how prevention efforts are geared towards their female population. Policy-makers in schools need to implement decisions to deter excessive drinking through rules or policies. This can be accomplished, in part, through:

• repeated mandatory educational sessions on alcohol during school orientation in both secondary and undergraduate schooling;
• mandated server training in university-run pubs;
• health and safety training of Residence Leaders and Campus Security;
• curbing campus alcohol advertising;

Over the summer months, Alberta invoked minimum alcoholic beverage prices at bars in an effort to curb consumption by drinkers. The new rules follow similar anti-binge-drinking legislation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and act as a good start in how governments can address the issue.

For more information on designing and implementing alcohol policies, check out APN's four downloadable Let's Take Action guides. Le guide pour les écoles, et le guide sur l'alcool de parrainage sont également disponibles en français.

 

Canada's New Impaired Driving Legislation

Since July 2, 2008, police have been granted the authority [PDF] in specific circumstances to demand that impaired driving suspects participate in "Physical Coordination Testing" and "Drug Recognition Evaluation" (DRE)

These amendments to the Physical Coordination Testing now permit police to demand a driver to participate in testing if they believe they have any alcohol or drugs in their body. These tests are based on internationally recognized Standard Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) protocols. A driver's failure on SFST provides the police with reasonable grounds to believe that the driver is impaired and thus is requisite grounds to demand further testing.

The new provisions for Drug Recognition Evaluation (DRE) will authorize specially trained and certified officers to conduct a DRE to determine if the driver is impaired by drugs and, if so, the class of drugs involved. The test results do not provide evidence of impairment, but rather confirm whether the sample contains the identified class of drugs. If no drugs are present, the impaired driving charge will be dropped.

Critics of the new laws feel these amendments will only add to a clogged Canadian criminal court system, as impaired driving trials already make up approximately 1/3 of all cases.

However, Dr. Robert Solomon, Director of Legal Policy for MADD Canada, feels the amendments will make it easier for police to obtain blood samples after serious automobile accidents in which alcohol is believed to be a factor and reduce the opportunities for defendants to use "evidence to the contrary" arguments to try to avoid a conviction.

"The legislation will make it more difficult for those who drink, drive and kill to escape liability," Dr. Solomon noted.

While this is a great step forward, many organizations, including the OPHA, the CAMH, and MADD Canada believe that the number of impaired-driving incidences will not drop dramatically unless the blood alcohol limit for a criminal charge is reduced from .08 to .05. Many local health units have recently been involved in such work as well.