Nova Scotia’s top doc points to provincial drinking problem
Posted Sep 8, 2011 04:56:05 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia’s top doctor is pointing to a social drinking problem which is clogging the health and justice system and endangering the province’s young people.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Robert Strang, says society has created an environment of over-indulging in alcohol.
“If we want to minimize the harms in many, many ways we need to fundementally look at issues around how we price and tax alcohol, how accessable it is, the advertising environment,” Dr. Strang told the Rick Howe Show Wednesday.
Strang says alcohol consumption puts people in the hospital on a daily and weekly basis by contributing to chronic diseases, motor vehicle crashs and domestic disputes.
He says alcohol has become cheaper to purchase in recent years and advertising minimizes the negative effects of alcohol. He says these factors are having a direct impact on young people.
But the CMO isn’t putting the blame on young people, pointing to data showing Nova Scotian of all ages have a pattern toward binge drinking.
The message comes as an Acadian student remains in hospital in critical condition after a night of binge drinking Tuesday.
The university’s Student Affairs spokesperson says staff do provide students with the “laws of the land” and rules about drinking in residence.
