CCSA: Public Consultation: Updating Canada’s Low Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines

LRDG Project 2022

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) is leading an exciting initiative, with support from Health Canada, to update Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines by 2022 using the latest evidence. They are holding a six weekonline public consultation to inform the update to the guidelines. The consultation survey is open to all people in Canada from March 8 until April 18.

Canada’s LRDGs were released in November 2011. Since then, new evidence on diseases and death caused by alcohol has been published. At the same time, some research has shown that drinking alcohol can also contribute to social harms such as sexual violence and harms to others.

Countries like the United Kingdom and Australia have recently updated their guidelines to reduce health risks from the use of alcohol. In July 2020, with the support of Health Canada, CCSA was mandated to update the Canadian guidelines by March 2022. The updated guidelines will help Canadians make well-informed and safer decisions about their use of alcohol. The updates will also aim to address the unique needs of Canadians who are at higher risk of experiencing alcohol-related harms, such as youth, women, lower income populations and those with chronic diseases.

The online consultation will take approximately 10 minutes to complete, depending on how much input you would like to provide. Participation is voluntary and anonymous.

The Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine is a national society of medical professionals and scientists committed to helping Canadians understand, accept, and recover from substance use disorders.

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