THERE'S 2,400 ALCOHOLICS IN THE CITY
Pouring yourself another drink? Think again
 Beginning todny The Citizen examines the alcohol problem in Prince George. The five-part series will look at how much we drink, what services are available to alcoholics and what alcoholics say about drinking.
by JOHN ASLING Citizen Staff Reporter
  The next time you pour yourself a t;ill cool one. try swallowing some of these facts along with it.
  Prince George’s Dr. Dave Dahlstrom, who works at the detoxification unit at the hospital, says alcoholism is probably the number one preventable disease in the city.
  According to B.C. Health Minister Hob McClelland, alcoholism is now Canada’s third most serious health problem. Only cancer and heart disease are more costly in terms of lives and money.
  It has been estimated that alcoholism causes 40 percent of all hospital admissions, 31 per cent of all suicides, 60 per cent of all homicides and 40 per cent of all family court problems.
  The Alcohol and Drug Commission of B.C. estimates that in 1976 taxpayers doled out $52.5 million for impaired driving cases alone.
  Commission researchers say that a conservative estimate would be that we paid out another $100 million for crime, medical and social costs brought on by alcohol.
The
Citizen
20 Copy
Monday. June 19, 1978	Vol. 22: No. 118
Prince George. British Columbia
 Pouring yourself another?Think again. The same commission says eight per cent of all drinkers are alcoholics and seven per cent arc hazardous drinkers. (One definition of when a person is an alcoholic is as soon as the alcohol causes problems for him.)
 Four per cent of the total population are alcoholics. That’s about 2,400 of us here in Prince George.
 Perhaps there’s little wonder why. The B.C. liquor administration says we bought $12.5 million worth of alcohol in Prince George in the year ending March 31, 1976.
 Since recent city population estimates indicate there are 37.203 of us who are of drinking age, we are spending at least $338 each a year on boo/e.
 Is it good for us?
  “It’s biochemically a poison.” says Thad Allen, director of the Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre in Prince George. “It’s more destructive tothe human body than any other drug.”
 Dahlstrom adds that it has an effect on every system in the body. It can hurt the brain, the liver, the intenstinal tract and less directly the all-important cardiovascular system.
  So why do we drink so much of it? “I feel a lot of it is the affluence of the society that allows us to get started on it." Allen says.
 Major Glen McEwan of the Salvation Army Harbor Light program for alcoholics adds “I suppose it’s because we feel that (alcohol) to be the answer to our social needs.
our fears and our insecurities.”
  And when speaking of affluence, it’s hard not to think of the provincial government which is cashing in on our bad habit. In that same year ending March 1976, the government took in $150 million in taxeson the booze. (The alcohol companies took in $510 million in B.C. in 1977.)
  In return they will dole out a token $4 million this year to the Alcohol and Drug Commission to fund 47 provincial agencies.
  Three of those agencies. Treatment North, the therapeutic residential program, the detox unit and the outpatient Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre, share $662,871 of the comission’s dollars.
  Inspector David Cowley, second-in-command of the RCMP here, says “I think we’ve got more than our fair share of people who suffer from alcoholism."
  But he says the the police are working at the problem, taking drunks to the detox, sending through the courts about 30 drinkers a year to the compulsory programs and by conducting "walk throughs” at local bars.
  And if you’re still thirsty for a drink after all that, talk to Sgt. KenCraigofthetrafficdivision. He says that asof May this year there were 357 arrests for impaired driving in the city and 80 accidents involving alcohol.
  Craig says also 60 per cent of last year’s fatal accidents had alcohol involved and 50 per cent of this year’s were related to booze.
3.5 PER CENT
Oil hike set this summer
   OTTAWA (CP) — Domestic oil prices will increase by about 3.5 cents a gallon this summer despite a decision by members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) not to raise world prices until Jan. 1.
   The domestic price increase is due to an agreement negotiated last spring under which the federal and provincial governments plan to continue gradually moving domestic oil prices toward world levels.
   Currently, a barrel of crudeoil from Alberta sells for $11.75 a barrel, about $3 a barrel less than the priceofOPECoil landed in Montreal.
   Under the federal-provincial agreement, the price will increase another $1 a barrel to $12.75 on July 1. After a 60-day freeze to allow oil companies to use up existing stocks of low-erpriced oil, the increase will be passed on to consumers about Sept. 1.
  T. C. Douglas, New Democratic Party energy critic, has been urging the government to forego the summer increase, saying it will worsen inflation and unemployment.
   But Energy Minister Alastair Gillespie has rejected the suggestion, saying government will maintain its policy of moving towards world prices. He also said the price would be kept below United States levels to maintain the competitive advantage of Canadian industry.
   Douglas said it was contradictory for the
 government to urge OPEC not to raise world prices while it increases domestic prices.
  Gillespie said in early May that he had urged OPEC to maintain a freeze on world prices, saying Western economies were just recovering from the sharp increases of 1973.
 A summer increase in world prices would have set back that recovery, he said.
    The decision to keep the base price at $12.70 (U.S.) for a 42gallon barrel of crude oil was ;i victory for Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC’s two biggest producers and the two closest friends of the United States in the 13-nation organization.
   Iraq, Algeria and others had urged an increase in the oil price because of inflation and the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, the currency used in the international oil trade. A study prepared by the OPEC secretariat said these two factors had cut the real price of a $12.70 barrel of oil to $7.
   But Saudi Arabia and its supporters argued that an increase would not stick because of the current world oil surplus, swelled by production from Mexico, the North Sea and Alaska, and the summer reduction in consumption in the industrialized countries of the Northern Hemisphere.
  Sunny
greetings
 Super smiles will greet Prince George visitors this summer no matter what direction they come from, Colleen Goodwin, left, works for Yellowhead 16 tourist association. Marianne Planidin, centre, will be greeting tourists at the Chamber of Commerce’s tourist
Citiirn Photo by Uav* Milne
 booth at Highways 16 and 97 intersection, Debbie Woz-ney works at the chamber’s downtown office and visitor information centre. Super smile is the provincial government’s summer tourist campaign which includes declaring today Smile Day.
FIVE RUN DRY OF DRAUGHTS
City hotels with beer dwindling
       by JAN-UDO WENZEL Citizen Staff Reporter
   Five of Prince George’s 11 hotel beer parlors are without draught beer, one has limited its operating hours and the rest will keep selling until they are dry.
   .The labor dispute in the beer industry is continuing with the breweries making a new offer which the union termed unacceptable. Talks between the parties were to resume in Vancouver today.
  There is no more draught beer at the McDonald, the Europe, the National, the Simon Fraser and the Columbus Hotel.
   The Columbus is currently closed to permit renovations and change-over to a neighborhood pub. It will open again on the weekend. The other hotels all still sell bottled beer.
   Canada Hotel owner Joe Russman said he has enough draught for two more days.
   Joe Faesen at the Yellowhead feels he can last for four more days.
   Joe Byers at the Astoria said he can sell “for quite a while.”
   "When I built the new hotel I put in a very large
 cooler for draught beer. From experience I knew it would come in handy,” Byers said.
   At the Croft the supply will last for another week and the Prince George Hotel estimates its supply will last another 10 days.
   The Inn of the North hasshortened its operating hours. From Monday to Thursday the tavern will be open only from 4 p.m. to midnight. Normal hours will resume during the weekend.
   Inn manager Greg Hartigan said that by limiting the hours he will be able to provide work for his employees as well as give his customers added days for drinking draught.
    But all efforts to preserve what is left for as long as possible may not prevent a total drying tip of supplies.
   John Langley, spokesman for the Canadian Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers, said in Vancouver Sunday the lockout isn’t likely to end until a new contract is negotiated.
   “We are prepared to go as long as it takes. It’s going to take a while, Langley said.
   Friday he was more optimistic, expressing hopes that the dispute will be settled soon.
   No details of the new offer by the Brewery Employers Labor Relations Association were released pending further talks.
   The employees are locked out from their jobs at Labatt’s, Molson’s, and Columbia Brewery. Carling-O’Keefe employees have been on strike for nearly three weeks now.
   About 4,000 hotel industry employees have been laid off in the Lower Mainland since hotels have closed their beer parlors.
   Liquor stores throughout the province are also dry. Domestic beer hasn’t been available in Vancouver for nearly a week, while in Prince George the supplies ran out last weekend.
   A spokesman for the store on 10th Avenue said today he hopes to receive a shipment of American beer today.
   “But as long as I haven’t got it, we are out of beer,” he said.
   The store on Victoria Street reported a total beer stock of two cases of British ale.
   The key issue in the dispute is the union’s refusal to bargain with the association which lacks approval by the labor ministry. The contract at Carling’s expired Dec. 31 and at the other breweries at the end of April.
China-Viet rift widens
  BANGKOK (AP) - China has ordered Vietnam to close diplomatic offices in three Chinese cities as soon as possible, Hanoi’s Voice of Vietnam radio reported today, marking a further decline in deteriorating relations between the two countries.
   A broadcast monitored in this Thai capital said Vietnam in turn has demanded that China guarantee (the) lives and property of officials at the three consular sections as they pack and return home.
   The consulate closings, not immediately confirmed by Peking, were the latest move in a propaganda and diplomacy battle between the two countries.
BULLETIN
  BRAMPTON, Ont. (CP) -Air Cunada pilots will go on strike June 26 to buck demands to be allowed to continue to fly first-class when travelling between assignments.
   A spokesinun for the Cunu-diun Air Line Pilots Association said Monday thut the 1,500 pilots voted 92 per cent in favor of a strike.
  The strike will become effective June 26 ut 3 a.m. EDT.
 AT LEAST 14 DEAD
Kansas tornado lashes showboat
     POMONA, Kan. (AP) — It was to be a night out on Lake Pomona-for celebrating anniversaries and enjoying a revival of the 1930s musical Dames at Sea. But death lay waiting for at least 14 of the 60 people aboard the sternwneeler showboat Whippoorwill as it glided into a collision course with a tornado.
     A 15th person, nine-year-old Melissa Wright, was missing and presumed dead.
     "I yelled and screamed and looked everywhere through the murky water, but there was nothing,” said Willodean Schwartz, whose husband, Dr. Norman Schwartz, 48, was killed in the accident Saturday night.
     Schwartz, a University of Missouri dentistry professor, and his wife were with a Central United Methodist Church group.
     Rev. Milton Vogel, the missing girl’s grandfather, also lost his wife, Grace, and his daughter, Sandra Wright, 37. mother of the missing girl. The elder Vogels were celebrating their 40th anniversary when the boat went over.
     Mike and Judy Patterson were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary when the black death funnel killed Mrs. Patterson, 25, who was eight months pregnant.
     "By the time we noticed it coming, we had less than two minutes,” said Bruce Rogers, owner of the boat. "I told the pilot to head for the south shore as quickly as possible. I went below and told the engineer to go full speed ahead.”
     Th£ 65-foot-long flat-bottom Whippoorwill had pulled away from the dock under clear skies shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday. At almost the same time, weather forecasters in Kansas City, Mo., studying satellite photographs and radar, issued a severe thunderstorm watch, said Warren Sunkel of the U.S. National Weather Service in Topeka.
     The tornado formed on the Dragoon Creek branch of the lake, and entered the main channel where it met the Whippoorwill.
See photo page 5.
TODAY
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Track meet
 A lot of effort went into the district truck und field qualifying meet here during the weekend. Puge 13.
The same old song
 Souring beef prices? We've heurd thut song before. Remember 1973? Beef went up more thun 20 per cent in thut yeur. So with unother round of inflution knocking on the door, it could be "u helluvu summer." Puge 30.
'High-flying con man'
 A Prince (ieorge truvel ugent wus portruyed us u highflying con mun who guve uwuy u I most 100 free trips, lie wus convicted of fraud und fuilure to collect fures. Puge 25.
   The forecast for Prince George today is for sunny skies and warm temperatures. Tuesday is expected to be sunny with some cloudy periods and warm temperatures.
   The forecast high today is 21, the low 6. The high Sunday was 18, the low 2, with no precipitation. On this date last year the high was 25, the low 12.
 •	What some people won’t do for a drink on a hot day. A local liquor store worker says she was surprised the other day to meet a group of Vancouver beer drinkers picking up their brew here in Prince George.
 •	“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” said North Central Municipal Association chairman George Thom, “I’d like to introduce Ralph Mair, here to speak in place of Highways Minister Alex Fraser.” “Thank you, Jack," answered consumer affairs minister Rafe Mair, “Happy to be here.”
 •	Locking a bike in Prince George so that it won’t be stolen is becoming an art form, say^ local cyclist Ray Helgason. An acquaintance of his found this out after chaining his bike’s frame securely one night only to come out the next morning to see that both wheels had been stolen. It requires a lot of ingenious wrapping so the chain protects everything.