Booze Flows More Freely in
Western Canada: Study

By Margaret Sheridan, Interrobang (Fanshawe College)

LONDON (CUP) — Canadians like
their beer, or at least that’s what we’re
led to believe. A new cross-country
survey has shown that some Canadians
appreciate their alcohol more than
others.

According to the research done for
the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry,
Ontario and Quebec have the lowest
rate of substance abuse. In most of
the western provinces, however, the
numbers are higher than the national
average.

 

“Geography tends to be ignored
in this kind of [study],” said Scott
Veldhuizen, co-author of “Geographical
Variation in the Prevalence of
Problematic Substance Use in Canada.”

“We tend to treat the country as
homogeneous, but we know from
existing work that there are usually
differences between regions.”

The study showed that rates tended
to be lower in central Canada, and
higher in the west. The average rate
of substance abuse in Canada hovered

NDP Shadow
Cabinet Retains
Key Posts for

Local MPs

By JJ McCullough, Editor-in-Chief

bh NDP leader Jack Layton
shuffled his shadow cabinet last week,
reassigning critic responsibilities among
his 30-member parliamentary caucus.
Despite the shake-up, the duties of most
of the NDP’s senior BC MPs remain
unchanged, including the two NDP MPs
in charge of the two ridings that house
the dual campuses of Douglas College.

Dawn Black, whose New
Westminster-Coquitlam riding contains
the David Lam campus, will continue
to serve as NDP defence critic, while
Peter Julian, who represents the district
containing the New West campus, has
been re-appointed as critic responsible
for international trade and the
Olympics.

NDP~ NPS

around 11 percent.

The highest average was in
Saskatchewan at just under 14 percent
average and the lowest in Quebec at
approximately nine per cent.

The study surprised many people
by showing that alcohol abuse is less
common in large urban centres than
their mid-sized counterparts. The study
revealed that the lowest rate of abuse
was found in Toronto at a mere 7.8
percent, and Montreal at 8.1 percent
Mid-sized cities weighed in at an
average of 12.6 percent.

“It wasn’t entirely surprising though
since the situation is quite similar with,
for example, crime which is also highest
in mid-sized cities, not in Toronto and
Montreal,” Veldhuisen said.

Another reason Veldhuisen
speculates behind the lower rates
in large cities is correlated to the
immigrant population.

“Immigrants tend to settle first
in major cities,” said Veldhuizen.
“Immigrants, and especially recent
immigrants, tend to have low levels
of substance use problems. Beyond
that, there are a lot of possibilities.
People in these cities tend to be a
little better-off economically and to
have more education, and, of course,
it’s been argued that there are also
more possibilities for recreation and
entertainment.”

The study also revealed that students
tend to be more susceptible to becoming
substance abusers than the majority of
the population, complementing data

collected in 2002 by Statistics Canada.

“In terms of prevalence, we had
three percent of men 15-years and
older were alcohol dependant,” said
Michael Tjepkema, who works as part
of Statistic Canada’s Health Statistics
Division.

“For women that value was 1.3
percent. But in terms of the university
population, those aged 20 to 24, both
sexes combined, was 8.6 percent, which
was the highest prevalence of all the
age groups we looked at.”

“Problems of the kind we’re
looking at are most common among
young people,” explained Veldhuizen.
“Especially among young men. We
found that rates rise sharply in the late
teens, peak around age 20, and then fall
off again.”

“The people who were most likely
to be alcohol dependant are the 20-24
year olds,” explained Tjepkema. “Never
married, which is also correlated
with the age. They were people who
have some post-secondary, so they’re
probably still in school. The main
bridge factor would be those young
adults.”

“It seems that demographic and
income differences may play a role,”
said Veldhuizen. “But there’s still a
difference that after we take all that
sort of thing into account. So we end
up speculating. Cultural differences,
income inequality and other economic
differences, local policy [alcohol tax,
restrictions on availability] are all
possibilities.”

 

 

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