Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jun 2005
Source: Whitehorse Star (CN YK)
Copyright: 2005 Whitehorse Star
Contact:  http://www.whitehorsestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1493
Author: Stephanie Waddell

SURVEY CHARTS LATEST DRINKING, SMOKING TRENDS

With the Yukon Addictions Survey's preliminary results released
Monday, the Yukon government will now go into more detail on
addictions issues before looking at a policy to deal with the issues.

"We think it's a real good start," Michael McCann, the territory's
director responsible for alcohol and drug services, told reporters at
a briefing on the preliminary results Monday.

The survey cost approximately $150,000, with funding from Health
Canada.

It found that in comparing the general population of the Yukon to the
rest of Canada's population, there aren't a lot of major differences
in the amount of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco being consumed.

"(There's) just about the same rate (of) alcohol use," said Flo
Kellner, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Carleton
University in Ottawa who has worked with the territory on the survey.

"Cannabis use though in Yukon is higher than the rate of use in the
provinces and tobacco use has gone down -- probably pretty much the
same from the rest of the provinces."

Kellner is also moderating the Yukon Substance Abuse Summit currently
underway at the Yukon Convention Centre.

A chart showing the percentage of alcohol and other drug use in the
past year for those more than 15 years old shows the Canadian average
of 79 per cent for alcohol for the general population matches the
Yukon average. The high-risk group in the Yukon is up to 81 per cent.

The percentage of cigarette users in the territory is at 28 per cent
for the general population and 75 per cent in the high-risk group.
This compares to 23 per cent for the rest of Canada.

A total of 21 per cent of the Yukon's general population used cannabis
in the last year with 74 per cent of the high-risk category using
cannabis in the last year. The national average is 14 per cent.

Past statistics have shown the Yukon has the highest per capita liquor
sales in the country.

"We have a lot of people who drink heavily," said James Tousignant, a
senior statistician with the territory.

"So you can have one person who usually consumes your, mine and a few
other people's per capita share per year. It doesn't take very much
for that to happen."

There are also tourists who buy alcohol, and liquor sales also tend to
spike around events like the annual Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous winter
festival.

"So we do drink, and some of us drink a lot more than other people and
it does show in the sales," he said.

The myth that Yukoners drink more is based on a reality, he
said.

"Even in 1990, one of the things we found out was the way the women
drink and the men drink are usually different, but in the North, here
in 1990, our women were drinking far more than the men in the South
were drinking," Tousignant said. "So you had those kind of things were
happening, but that's changed a little bit come 2005."

Kellner said in a small community it can also appear there are more
people with addiction problems than in other larger
jurisdictions.

"It is in our face," McCann added. "You walk around the block, you
bump into someone and you see it. The next day the same thing happens,
but very often it's the same person."

Whitehorse itself presents some unique circumstances, he
explained.

Though it's the largest community in the Yukon, it also has a small
downtown. In a larger city like Vancouver, areas where there are a lot
of addiction problems can be easier to avoid.

"You can go to certain places in Ottawa and find the same things,"
Kellner said. "Yeah, you could go to the market area in Ottawa and the
area just in front of, between Eaton's and Sears now and find the same
people and probably, I'm just guessing, they have access to more drugs
than the Yukon people here."

In Whitehorse, there can be fewer specific areas where drugs can be
found.

"This is a small centre of town so they're all there," she
said.

McCann noted the survey results are in line with some of the
perceptions those working in the field have had for a long time.

"It helps us to know where the problem is and who's being affected,"
he said. "And I think what that will allow us to do, will be to better
focus our resources in the right area."

One of the surprising results was how easy it is to get illicit drugs
like cannabis, cocaine and others.

"We split this into urban and rural respondents -- surprising in all
circumstances for all the drugs, the rural respondents would say it's
easier to get the drug than in the urban area," Kellner said.

She noted, while it wasn't part of the survey, her thought is that
with fewer people to ask in a small community, it may be easier to
zero in on where to go.

"We did scratch our heads,"Kellner said of the results on accessing
drugs.

The survey was the only addictions survey in the country (similar
initiatives were done in the provinces) which looked at both the
general population and high-risk group.

The general population survey was done by telephone, where 1,240
respondents were interviewed.

The sample of those thought to be at a higher risk was done by
speaking directly to those who may not have a phone at the Salvation
Army, some street corners, a soup kitchen and the skateboard park. In
exchange for their information, the 73 of those respondents were given
meal vouchers to Subway.

"That information that's coming out from the high-risk group is really
important to look at because these are the people that we see; these
are the people that are consuming three or four times the number of
drinks per drinking occasion," Tousignant said. "So if you come down
and we go to the KK (Kopper King) or something ... and you have a
couple of beer or a couple of drinks, well, these people might do
three or four times that amount at one sitting and then later in the
day they'll do another three or four times that amount in another sitting."

That survey of the high-risk group told a very different story than
the general population survey did.

While Tousignant had expected some differences in the two surveys, he
was surprised by the extent of those differences.

Not only were there a lot more users of cannabis and cocaine in the
high-risk group, there were also enough users of hallucinogens,
ecstatically and methamphetimine to create a percentage.

It showed that seven per cent in the high-risk group used
methamphetimine in the last year. In the general population, that
estimate was suppressed due to unacceptably high sampling
variability.

A total of 16 per cent in the high-risk group reported using ecstasy,
while one per cent of the general population reported using it.

Again, one per cent of the population reported using hallucinogens,
while 18 per cent of the high-risk group reported using those drugs in
the past year.

As the numbers are looked at in more detail such as race and culture,
McCann said officials are interested in developing a "policy based on
evidence.

And that's what we're really interested in doing is digging into the
numbers, understanding -- you know -- go beyond the numbers, go to the
people, find out who these people are."

That will allow resources to be better directed at those
affected.

If research is to be used to develop policy, vulnerable target groups
have to be looked at, Kellner said.

"For instance, if you find it's young people getting into trouble for
the most part, you're not going to target your message ... at people
45 and over," she explained.

More information will likely be ready by the fall, McCann said, adding
it's hoped the information will feed into an action plan being
developed sometime in the fall. 
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MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)