Canadians told to have two drinks a week, as crack is decriminalised
‘Nanny state’ guidelines on alcohol among strictest in the West as Canada rolls out liberal drugs policy
JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S government has introduced some of the strictest guidelines on alcohol consumption in the West, just weeks before Canada will decriminalise heroin and crack cocaine in parts of the country.
The government is recommending Canadians have no more than two drinks per week. The advice is a steep drop from the previous recommendation of a maximum of 10 drinks a week for women and 15 for men.
No amount of alcohol is safe, said the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addictions (CCSA) in a report, which concluded “drinking less is better”, and if you must drink, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low risk.
The move puts the country out of step with several other Western nations. The US recommends no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women, while the UK suggests no more than 14 “units” of alcohol – about six glasses of wine, or pints of beer – per week.
At the same time, Canada has taken steps to liberalise policy on harder drug use. The government said the decision to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of cocaine, MDMA and opioids in British Columbia has been made in the hopes of stemming its record number of overdose deaths.
The policy will take effect on Jan 31 and apply to drug users over the age of 18. Advocates of the reform said decriminalisation was the first in a long list of steps needed to address Canada’s deadly opioid epidemic.
According to Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s health officer, the drug possession policy is an “important step forward to removing that fear and shame and stigma. This is not one single thing that will reverse this crisis, but it will make a difference.”
However, critics said the worst-case scenario was that it created an incentive for drugs to be made more potent, thus worsening the opioid crisis.
Some pointed to an inconsistency in the government’s approach to lowerclass controlled substances.
According to the Global Drug Survey, Canada does not rank in the top 10 countries in drinking frequency, falling below the global average.
But on the measure of “feeling drunk”, Canada jumped to the sixth spot, just behind the US and the UK.
Dr Erin Hobin said: “Alcohol is largely a part of our culture in Canada, it’s normalised, it’s largely socially acceptable.
“You’ll see alcohol at birthdays, weddings or when you’re watching Hockey Night in Canada on a Saturday night.”
An opinion piece in the Toronto Sun labelled the guidelines as “the latest nanny state lecturing, brought to you by the Trudeau government”.
Prof Dan Malleck, a medical historian at Brock University Health Sciences, called the CCSA’S assertions about increased risk of drinking alcohol “alarmist and distorting”, saying in The Hamilton Spectator: “There is no place for ideologically driven neo-prohibitionist research in the policies of Canada.”