Watch above: With grad season fast approaching, Amber Rockliffe takes a look at how bad the problem of binge drinking in Saskatchewan youth is and what parents, community members, and students can do to prevent it.
SASKATOON – Young people around the world, including here in Canada, are binge drinking at higher rates, according to a recent report. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found teenagers across the country are being socialized to over-consume alcohol.
Kaitlyn Tress with the University of Saskatchewan’s What’s Your Cap? initiative said binge drinking is a big problem in the province. She said popular culture often doesn’t help.
“Looking at TV shows, in the parties and stuff, obviously everybody’s drinking alcohol, and if that’s what students see, they think that’s what university’s about or high school is about,” Tress explained.
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Melitun Sysing, a social worker with Saskatoon’s Youth Resource Centre, said binge drinking is a major factor behind crime in the city.
“That could be assaults, that could be robberies, and other social issues affecting relationships with friends and families,” Sysing said.
A Saskatchewan Ministry of Health report found nearly 50 per cent of students from Grades 10 through 12 reported binge drinking over the past year, a statistic that can have deadly consequences.
“Our liver is actually only able to process one ounce of alcohol per hour. If there’s a large amount, that could lead to alcohol poisoning, blacking out, and if it’s really large amount, death,” Sysing explained.
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The What’s Your Cap? group aims to curb alcohol consumption among young people in the province, showcasing alternative ways of de-stressing and having fun.
“If parents and guardians, community members—people who are known to be support systems, can know how to develop those conversations with people who need that support … that’s a good step,” Tress explained.
The OECD study also finds the proportion of 15-year-olds who have tried alcohol is up from 43 per cent in 2002 to 67 per cent in 2010.
The What’s Your Cap? group plans to reach out to high schools over the next few years, to help teens understand the real consequences of over-consumption.
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