B.C. now has the second highest per-capita alcohol consumption in Canada after Nunavut. (CBC)

A group of researchers is urging the B.C. government to raise the price of alcoholic beverages and to consider making them less available in the wake of a study that shows consumption is rising faster in the province than anywhere else in the country.

The study by the McCreary Centre Society and five B.C. universities found that alcohol consumption has increased in the province 16 per cent over the last decade compared to nine per cent in the rest of the country.

It also found evidence of increasing availability and use of crack cocaine, ecstasy and prescription medications in B.C., while the use of marijuana and methamphetamine appeared to be dropping.

The study said adolescents were found to be drinking and smoking less.

But researchers expressed the greatest concern about the growing legal use of alcohol.

B.C. now has the second highest per-capita alcohol consumption in Canada after Nunavut.

Change in availability recommended

"It's to do with the hours of which the stores and bars are open," said Tim Stockwell, director of the University of Victoria Centre for Addictions Research.

"It's [also] to do with how many there are, and it's to do with the price it's being sold at."

Stockwell said excessive drinking can lead to a range of serious health issues, including eight types of cancer.

"The liquor distribution branch — the government monopoly — could use its powers to good effect to curb this silent epidemic that's growing, of increasing alcohol-related trauma and death and chronic illness."

One recommendation of the study, released Wednesday, recommends linking the price of beverages to their alcohol content by increasing the cost of stronger drinks.