University students do not expect alcohol sales at convenience stores will change habits

More than 4,600 businesses across Ontario with a new liquor licence are allowed to sell beer, wine and cider starting today.

A city councillor in London, Ont. has raised concerns the new rules will cause post-secondary students to drink more before going to a bar and may lead to increased underage drinking. An expert in drug and alcohol regulation and prohibition said being able to pick it up at later times is not going to change how people consume it.

"People are always targeting students as this big problem. Then they always target alcohol as the problem. If a university has a drinking culture, it's not the alcohol's problem. It's something that the university needs to address," Dan Malleck, chair of the Department of Health Sciences at Brock University said.

The Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association doesn’t think much will change.

“If students want to drink, there will be drinking. I think what we're focused on here is making sure it's safe and accessible and students have resources available to go to in case they need it. But we're not really that concerned about students getting more alcohol. If they want it, they're going to find a way to get it,” Arya Razmjoo, Vice-President of the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association said.

Razmjoo said the student association used to operate a pub in 2018, but shut it down because drinking was decreasing among students.

“So we have actually seen less and less alcohol consumption from young people,” Razmjoo said.

Wilfrid Laurier University student Savannah Wade said the convenience will be nice.

“I think it's good for me as a student just because the LCBO closes earlier. So it kind of makes it more accessible if I ever have like a late night decision to go out,” Savannah Wade, a student at Wilfrid Laurier University said.

But she doesn’t think the change will impact how students consume alcohol.

“I think there's already drinking culture and there's already stores that sell it,” Wade said.

One thing Malleck thinks will be challenging is making sure all the stores are following the rules and only selling to legal customers at legal times.

“There will be more due diligence on local convenience store owners to make sure that their staff are following appropriate guidelines, are carding people, are not selling to people who are drunk. That’s probably going to be the biggest challenge,” Malleck said.