DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND TEMPERS PROVE VOLATILE, DEADLY MIX

Devin Venables Walked Into A Bar For A Cold Beer.

Henry Addai was walking with his brother and two friends in the East Village.

Two young Calgarians, both less than 23 years old.

Neither suspected they were about to die. But their shocking murders
share another similarity -- all were the result of a deadly mix of
alcohol or drugs and flaring tempers.

In Calgary homicide cases, this lethal combination is all too common.
Directly or indirectly, excessive drinking and the use of cocaine,
crack and marijuana are taking a terrible toll.

The deaths of 85 people -- 44 per cent of 195 murder cases concluded
by court or other means -- involved drugs and alcohol, according to a
Calgary Herald special investigation of murders between 1992 and 2007.

Nineteen deaths are linked directly to bar violence since 1992, the
study found.

Boozy brawls and drug deals gone wrong are frequent causes of murder,
according to experts.

"Family and acquaintance violence is typically greased by something
like alcohol and (illegal) substance use," said Doug King, chair of
the justice studies program at Mount Royal College.

Whether tragedy happens under the cloud of an alcoholic haze, or as a
casualty in the dangerous drug trafficking trade, all such deaths
were preventable, says the grieving mother of one victim.

"Our kids are dying as the result of bad decisions," said Karen Venables.

Her 18-year-old son Devin died after a single-punch fight with Devon
Heil outside Dixon's Pub in Midnapore late in the night on Nov. 4,
2002. A drunken Heil was angry because he thought Venables had stolen
drugs or money from him -- or at least knew who was responsible.

With a broken heart and a mind for change, Karen Venables joined the
government's crime prevention task force last spring. Across the
province, the panel heard from Albertans worried about violence and
crime associated with excessive drinking.

The panel recommended the province significantly increase the number
of treatment beds for addiction.

"We would drop our crime rate significantly because so much revolves
around drug and alcohol abuse. More treatment, I believe, would
decrease our crimes."

Venables said of people addicted to drugs, "It is making a vicious
circle. They're robbing, they're assaulting, they're killing just to
get the drugs."

Henry Addai, 22, was slain by a rival drug dealer near the Salvation
Army Centre of Hope on Sept. 9, 2005.

A turf war erupted near the St. Louis Hotel in the city's notoriously
dangerous "Crack cul de sac."

Addai's younger brother, 20-year-old Jeff, was also stabbed during
the altercation between two groups.

Last year, the Cage Your Rage campaign to combat bar violence was
launched by the province's liquor commission, which invested $630,000
in a poster project.

The campaign targets 18- to 24-year-old men, urging them to walk away
from booze-fuelled confrontations. The next round of posters will
encourage patrons to drink in moderation, not to excess.