A little dance for the drinkers of Bethel (Barrow: sale, buying)

[teamcoltra]

Congratulations your town is now wet.

[blueflames50]

Oh bummer.... Warpt what do ya think of this??? I know you didn't want it to change...serious impact on the youth???

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by blueflames50

Oh bummer.... Warpt what do ya think of this??? I know you didn't want it to change...serious impact on the youth???

Regulation of alcohol in isolated towns, such as Bethel or Barrow, is an interesting subject, with many more facits than one might think exist. I have a good friend here in Barrow that worked as a counselor in the "drunk tank" (I can't remember what it was actually called) back when selling alcohol was legal in Barrow. He also was a very significant part of the EMS system for years here in Barrow. Oddly he is much more tolerant of allowing alcohol than I am! (Obvious distinction: he drinks, I don't.)

My experience was merely the fact that when Bethel had a liquor store the ER room at the hospital was busy even on Wednesday nights, and much busier on weekend evenings. When they outlawed the sale of alcohol, they switched to an on-call night staff for the ER. From what I've heard it was just the same here in Barrow.

However, my friend tells me there is a really significant difference in how people drink, and in the way that it interferes with families, and it is not all in favor of total prohibition either. It teaches binge drinking, because the availability is always poor. That makes the bootlegging industry very profitable, versus merely a minor business during the non-business hours for legal outlets. My friend claims that too much regulation actually causes a higher percentage of totally disfunctional alcoholics. It is also clear that it encourages a "criminal" mind set because there is a huge motivation.

The trick then is to find the amount of regulation that results in the least harm. Those who do drink of course don't like the hassle of regulation and want less, while those who don't drink are not as concerned with that angle. Does limiting the import of booze help? Or does it just cause people to stock up (as much as they can) for when they want to party, and thus result in more use than would otherwise happen? Does having a local store mean buying only what one can afford at the moment, and make it likely that most folks will stop drinking when the store closes for the night?

It's a tough call. In particular because in locations like Bethel and Barrow we are all pretty close to each other. Ol' what's his name the drunk over there may be a lot of awful things, but you know he's still a good friend of mine and would help me in any way he can. I need to help him too...

[warptman]

I just think it was a bad idea to get rid of the restrictions. There is a bad enough drinking problem here and you see it on a daily basis, go hang out at any of the stores here and you will see people waiting outside for a jug. You know these people have kids, too. Most of them were taken away because the parents drank all the time. Now with all the restrictions lifted there are liquor licenses that can be obtained through the ABC Board of Alaska. No restrictions mean that anyone can order as much as they want starting on November 1st. It'll be easier for anyone to get alcohol from then on.

[melbern]

What are some of the reasons for the high rate of alcoholism/heavy drinking/whatever you want to call it? Long cold winters? Boredom? ?

[starlite9]

When I was a kid, I slimed fish in Bethel and in the Stores, you couldn't buy Vannilla Extract unless you saw the store manager. People would buy all that was on the shelf and drink it to get a buzz...

All in all, I think that was a bad choice. Drinking is a problem now and it isn't legally sold there, when it is, things will just go downhill from there IMHO.

[teamcoltra]

Lets see the other thing to do is ... bingo.

I mean hell you can't even have 'fun' with the ladies because you will catch something (lol if you find one attractive enough anyway -no offense there are a few, but they are always taken-). >.> When there is no women, no entertainment... what else?

Now I don't drink... but there have been significant studies to prove that when you give people alchol and then teach them how to handle it instead of just taking it away... you get better results. The drinking age in the UK is 16... however the amount of accedents due to drunk driving is actually higher in that age range (16-21) in the United States.

[JohnPF]

Education, education and once more, education. First at home, but if there is trouble due to alcohol at home, than educate in school. Mandatory ed for offenders.
Prohibition was tried thru the years and always failed. I know the problem is bigger than that, much more complicated, but basic take on it is as I said above.

[melbern]

Originally Posted by teamcoltra

The drinking age in the UK is 16... however the amount of accedents due to drunk driving is actually higher in that age range (16-21) in the United States.

More likely this is due to much stricter drink driving laws in the UK, and the fact that fewer young people have cars.

Binge drinking is a massive problem in the UK. And actually, the number of sloppy drunks stumbling around there after last call is far worse than what I've seen in the US.

Regardless, education is definitely the key, if people can be bothered to listen. In the end, people make their own choices, for better or for worse.

So I'll ask again, why is drinking such a problem in certain places in AK?

[teamcoltra]

Mel I answered you question in the first two paragraphs of my last post, sorry for not indicating that was in reply to you