Study suggests alcohol use in B.C. higher than ever
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A new study suggests alcohol consumption in British Columbia is at its highest levels in at least two decades, partly due to COVID-19.
Researchers at the University of Victoria analyzed alcohol sales data during the first year of the pandemic to make its conclusions, and says the research is supported by Health Canada.
“Consumption for this past fiscal year (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021) was equivalent to 547 cans of 5 per cent beer or 104 bottles of 12 per cent wine per year for each per person aged 15+ in the province,” said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the university’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR). “At 9.32 litres (L) of pure alcohol per capita, this the highest level of alcohol consumption recorded since CISUR started monitoring it in 2001.”
Naimi says the results indicate the higher levels of consumption seen in the first few months of COVID were not the result of stockpiling, but of an overall increase in drinking sustained over the year.
