Will temperance pledges prevent acts of violence?

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Miles Craig launched foundation in June.

So far, nine people have taken the Canadian Temperance Foundation's online abstention pledge. Two of them are foundation founder Miles Craig and his vice-president, Gray Garten.

To be fair, Craig, who made his money with the Brandon-based Craig Broadcasting empire, just launched the foundation in June. Garten, a childhood friend of Craig's whose addiction story makes him the public face of the foundation, says its success will not be measured in numbers alone.

He is somewhat vague how the success will be measured.

The foundation wants Canadians to agree to abstain or use restraint in their consumption of drugs and alcohol. It is not promoting prohibition. Garten says victory will "break down to pledges signed and also to a reduction in social harm."

The latter cannot be quantified.

The back story is that Craig was dismayed by the booze-fuelled violence that tore apart Vancouver in the 2011 post-Stanley Cup riot. He decided to take a stand.

(Craig and Garten, who became close during summers at Riding Mountain National Park, both live in British Columbia now.)

The movement began with $100,000 of Craig's money, a flashy media campaign, slick website and a sincere vow to mitigate the excessive use of drugs and alcohol by Canadians. Craig and Garten are hoping to attract other donors and sponsors.

The Temperance Foundation plans to work with a variety of other social agencies and hopes to eventually spread its message in schools.

"We're talking a new brand of temperance," says Garten. "Basically, we're non-judgmental, non-secular, non-government." But will temperance sell in 2012? Does it need to?

The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba could not provide anyone to comment on the effectiveness of temperance pledges. A spokesman for the WRHA said no one in their addictions branch was prepared to comment because, to the best of their knowledge, there are no studies in the area.

Some statistics show Craig is right to be worried. A Health Canada funded study revealed that in 2010-11, 45 per cent of Canadian students in grades 7 through 12 said they drank alcohol in the previous 12 months.

According to published reports, one-third of students reported having participated in binge-drinking -- consuming five or more drinks on one occasion -- in the past 12 months.

In Britain, binge-drinking has reached epidemic levels, reportedly costing National Health Service more than $4 billion annually. Liver disease is on the rise in Britain, increasing by 25 per cent in the last decade.

Garten tells his own addiction story with the ease of a man accustomed to 12-step programs. He took his first drink at 11. He was a "full-blown addict and alcoholic" at 15. His drugs of choice were cocaine and booze, but he wasn't picky.

He quit school at 16, was homeless for a time and eventually hit bottom.

"I guess I finally reached the point of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was tired of having seizures. I was tired of being alone."

Garten went to his first AA meeting in 1979. After a significant period of sobriety he relapsed, but has been sober since 2007.

Would people who are drinking excessively or using other drugs want to sign a temperance pledge? Would it make a stitch of difference? Is it, like so many virginity pledges, well-meaning but essentially little more than wishful thinking?

I asked Garten if the aims of the Temperance Foundation would have helped him when he was in active addiction.

"I think it would have had tremendous impact," he said. "As an active addict, yes. Yes, it would."

Only Gray Garten can know what might have helped him. It's my cynical nature that leads me to wonder if the violence that tore apart Vancouver during the riot could have been altered by signed temperance pledges.

Good for Miles Craig for putting his time and money into action. Let's just hope what he calls a "simple, old-fashioned message of abstinence and restraint" isn't a waste of both.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 31, 2012 A6