Willoughby: Inconvenience a better choice than easy alcohol

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The government of Ontario wants to see alcohol in every corner store. Our government says it will give people more choice and more convenience.

But will it make our choices better choices?

Will we choose convenience over a sober second thought?

Most people now recognize there are no positive health benefits from alcohol; it may make us funnier but the longer term consequences are rarely very funny.

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The science is clear that alcohol increases the chance of developing a wide variety of cancers. Many people feel that is a problem for tomorrow; today we’d just like to relax, but we have way too much cancer today. The Canadian Cancer Society has reported that drinking alcohol raises your risk of developing head and neck, breast, colorectal, esophageal, liver, stomach, and pancreatic cancers. Cancers kill people of every age and treatment costs our community a lot of money.

The research is also clear that alcohol increases the chances of intimate partner violence and the more alcohol the more violence. We have way too much violence and the victims are always on the same side of the gender divide. The World Health Organization has reported that regular drinking by either partner can exacerbate financial difficulties, childcare problems, infidelity or other family problems. Children who witness violence between parents are more likely to develop harmful drinking patterns later in life. Intimate partner violence kills too many people, echoes through the generations and costs our community a lot of money.

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The research is also clear that alcohol increases the chances of car crashes and we have way too many car crashes. MADD has reported that car crashes are the leading cause of death among 16 to 25 year olds, and alcohol or other drugs are a factor in 55 per cent of those crashes. Sixteen to 25 year olds constitute 13.6 per cent of the population, but make up almost 33.4 per cent of the impairment-related traffic deaths. Drinking and driving kills so many people, destroys so many families, and costs our community a lot of money.

Our government’s finance department has stated it will cost the province $225 million to change the retail system for selling alcohol. The province also will lose more than $150 million a year that the LCBO generates for the province. Making alcohol more convenient will cost our community a lot of money.

I am reminded of the stories of ancient Roman gladiators and how the Roman Emperors would increase the gladiator games when they were losing wars or losing the support of the people. It was a great distraction from their problems and more alcohol will likely distract us from our problems.

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Why would an intelligent, educated community want to make alcohol more convenient?

Why would an intelligent, educated community want to spend so much money making alcohol more convenient?

The government doesn’t have enough money for education, health care, and many other social services, but it’s willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make alcohol more convenient.

It makes you wonder what the plan is. Why make our children less educated, our parents less healthy, and us more intoxicated?

I won’t blame Premier Doug Ford and I won’t blame the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario; I will blame us, the citizens of Ontario, because it’s happening on our watch.

We can sit back, keep our fingers crossed, and have a drink and hope we don’t get cancer, get beaten up, or get run over, or attacked by a gladiator, or we can put this idea back in the bottle.

The choice is inconvenient, but most wise choices are rarely convenient.

Greg Willoughby is an immigration lawyer in London and a parent of four children soon to be of drinking age.

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