Pre-drinking a precursor to problems 0

IAN GILLESPIE, The London Free Press

In Britain, it's called "pre-loading" or "front-loading." In the U.S., it's known as "pre-gaming."

Here, it's got a more straightforward name: "pre-drinking."

But whatever you call it, it's dangerous. And it's landed one local bar-owner -- quite unfairly, I think -- in court.

In a nutshell, pre-drinking involves quickly downing a lot of alcohol and then visiting a bar or nightclub. And it's an increasingly common habit with young people.

So common, in fact, that researchers from the London office of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health are heading to Windsor to learn more.

"I think young people have always engaged in this activity to some extent, but it seems to be more intense (now)," says London-based alcohol and violence scientist Samantha Wells. "We get the impression, just from speaking to young people, that they are drinking a lot before they go out."

Wells and several other researchers -- including Kathryn Graham, the co-author of a book about bar violence titled Raising The Bar -- are heading in April to Windsor, where they'll set up a 10-metre trailer on a street near the city's downtown bar district. There, they'll interview bar patrons and administer voluntary breathalyser tests.

The results of the three-month pilot project that Wells believes is the first of its kind in Canada will refine the data-gathering methods needed for a more extensive study.

Wells says preliminary research indicates young people pre-drink for two main reasons: It's cheaper, and it permits the kind of interaction that can't take place in a noisy bar.

"These clubs are so loud and busy that they're not able to chat with their friends," she says. "So pre-drinking allows them to socialize before they go to the clubs."

Wells recalls one study participant who said he had his pre-drinking down to an art. The young man described how he'd quickly drink a lot, then hop in a cab and arrive at a club before the effects of the alcohol hit him -- and before door staff could notice.

But you don't need to explain that to London bar owner John Scott-Pearse.

"It (pre-drinking) has been getting worse and worse," says Scott-Pearse, who operates Robinson Hall and Club Rouge that mainly caters to students. "As tuition goes up, they have less and less money. . . . They all drink at home."

Scott-Pearse says the average student spends between $5 and $11 during an evening at one of his bars.

"The bars that cater to students are semi-starving," he says.

In the past year, Scott-Pearse has been ticketed twice -- in the first instance he paid the $500 fine and the second case has yet to go to trial -- for "permitting drunkenness" in one of his bars. But he insists both cases involved young people who were drunk before they entered his club.

In the second case, Scott-Pearse says the man told police he consumed seven beers at his home and then, 15 minutes later, arrived at Club Rouge, where he bought one drink.

"We served him one half-ounce (of alcohol)," Scott-Pearse says. "And somehow it's a crime that I had him in my bar."

He argues it's nearly impossible for his staff to gauge the sobriety of hundreds of arriving patrons.

"The police say, 'You've got to do something about this drunkenness,' " he says. "But it's got nothing to do with us."

Ian Gillespie is the Free Press city columnist.

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