Gov't bans high alcohol cooking wine

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High-alcohol content cooking wines are being pulled from Alberta grocery store shelves because it has become the drink of choice for Edmonton's skid-row Natives.

Inexpensive cooking wines, with an alcohol content of 38 per cent, will be removed from corner grocery counters Sept. 1.

The alcohol content will be reduced to 20 per cent.

The decision by the government to regulate the traditional cooking liquor comes as a result of pressure by two Edmonton downtown beat policemen and a social service physician.

"I wouldn't call it an epidemic," says Edmonton Police Services Constable Mike Crustolo who helped spearhead the campaign.

"But I can really see the affects it's having on a lot of the people down here," said Crustolo, who patrols the Boyle Street area.

The Alberta Liquor Control Board and the Alberta Solicitor General's office handed down their decision to reduce the content because of what it is doing to the health of Natives in

the city, Crustolo said.

He said high-alcohol Chinese cooking wines are the drink of choice for Natives in Edmonton's skid row district.

The wines, found in most Chinese grocery stores in the downtown area, cost about $1.49 each.

"An average bottle of booze found in the liquor store is 40 per cent alcohol. These guys are drinking this tuff (cooking wine) right on the streets and there was never anything we

could do about it. It wasn't illegal," he said.

"All we could do was tell them they had to go somewhere else to drink."

Crustolo and beat patrolman David Hut, who patrols the Winston Churchill area, said they spend most of their patrols caring for Natives who became deathly sick from drinking the

wine.

The wine, which has a two per cent salt content, isn't meant for consumption.

Herbert Kammerer, Boyle Street Health Centre director, said he noticed an increase in the number of Natives coming to his centre experiencing the symptoms incurred by cooking

wine consumption.

He subsequently became alarmed over the number of people suffering from high blood pressure and lung defects, so he complained to ALCB officials.

Two of Kammerer's patients died this year from heart attacks he believes occurred by drinking cooking wine.

"At first they (ALCB) didn't respond, so I contacted the beat cops to tell them. They agree there was a problem," he said.

After that, Kammerer said, things started to get done.

Solicitor General spokesman John Szumlas says his department realized the liquor was not being used for what it was originally meant for.

"It became apparent that it was not being used for a culinary complement but rather an intoxicant," he said.

The Alberta Liquor Control Board has been monitoring the problems for some time, said ALCB spokesman Jim Ogilvy this week.

He said all high-alcohol cooking wines are being targeted but the decision was based on prevalent use by Natives in Edmonton's inner city.

"Now we hope it will become less attractive," Ogilvy said.