Posted on 12/25/2016 3:22:01 AM PST by Cronos
As soon as she glimpsed the body on the icy street, Marie Nickolai knew it was Jackie Amaktoolik. He’d been drinking outside.
She wept “That’s my brother,” she said.
When homeless people die in Alaska, it is often like this: outside, facilitated by a lethal combination of alcohol and cold.
...Nickolai, 42, and her stepbrother grew up among eight siblings in the remote Yupik village of New Stuyahok along the Nushagak river in western Alaska. She said it was a childhood of picking berries, hunting moose, fishing and attending the Russian Orthodox church.
..laska has some of the highest per capita rates of homelessness and alcoholism in America. From October to April, when temperatures can fall below freezing in this city of 300,000, bodies turn up outside with grim predictability; they are found in cars, hunched for warmth near transformer boxes, or in makeshift camps in the city’s many wooded parks.
Bodies also appear in the spring, as the snow recedes, often surrounded by plastic bottles once filled with alcohol or mouthwash. The most at-risk are those who have poorly treated physical or mental illnesses and years of alcoholism. The dead are disproportionately Alaska Natives, police and homelessness advocates say, who make up 20% of the general population but constitute half of the clients in shelters.
There are about 3,000 to 4,000 people without permanent housing in Anchorage, though many of those are living in shelters or couch surfing. At the last count in August, about 450 people were living in emergency shelters and in outside camps.
...the drug of choice in the city is alcohol. The rate of alcohol abuse among Alaska Natives is consistently the highest among all ethnic groups, mirroring that of American Indians in the lower 48 states
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“Rather than banning alcohol, how about quit trying to social engineer everyone into the liberal ideal.”
The social engineering we’re talking about was done long before you and I were even born, now we have to deal with the results. As far as banning it goes that’s their choice, they are a sovereign nation and can do what they want. You and I are not the ones having to bury all these folk’s, they are.
Refer Madness is still a comedy.
Maybe it’s not the same danger as alcohol, but pot takes it share of lives also. Often not the user.
http://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/05/fatal-road-crashes-involving-marijuana-double-state-legalizes-drug/
I have no problems with the Indian Nations passing any laws they want, but alcoholism is not a human disease, it is a symptom of a sick society.
I know of alcoholism as my closest brother is an alcoholic. It is his choice and he is a product of his environment. He sees the inside of a bottle every day, but hasn’t seen the inside of a church in 25 years. Society tacitly approves of that lifestyle these days. And, no, you can not force or shame a drunk into detox and rehab, even if it is free.
And you can stick a grouse or two with the small critter permit (10 bucks or whatever) and the flora is amazing in some parts.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love New Mexico. I particularly like the Bull of the Woods/Red River area.
Alcohol I can do without. Not exactly a friend of Bill, more like a friend of me.
Whether it’s a disease or not is meaningless, the problem is it’s a reality. So what do you do, just keep digging and filling holes?
“Not exactly a friend of Bill, more like a friend of me.”
The fact that you even know his name is good and tells me a little something about yourself. I counsel Vet’s and Peace Officers who deal with addiction and use much of Bills teachings with a few changes of my own. The friend of me part is high on my list and gets me around allot of barriers. I have 46 men I’ve helped recover from addiction and many of them have went on to help others. While I don’t attend AA meetings I do get calls from time to time when they have someone who needs and wants help. I’m proud to say I have about a 65% success rate, though I wish it was 100%.
“They are out to soon with the “Homeless” stories. I can picture it now:
January 21, 2017
“Homeless freeze as Trump and Republicans party”
LOL...You are so right!
I know it sounds cruel to say this but dying passed out in the cold is probably the best thing for them. Instead of a lifetime of bumming off family members, strangers and welfare offices, they perform the one useful act they can by eliminating themselves from the gene pool and the resource pool.
May God have mercy on them but it is the life many of them chose for themselves.
Rather than banning alcohol, how about quit trying to social engineer everyone into the liberal ideal.
They don't even need to buy sugar. Canned fruit works easily. Homemade wild yeast only needs a little dish of flour and water, set by the heater for a few days. Where there's a will, there's a way...
The Guardian is always very concerned about issues in the US, less so in their own Workers Paradise. I think we can handle problems in the US without their help.
Obama had eight years to do something about this. All he did was rename Mount McKinley.
The problem with that is prohibition never really works. Someone will find a way. Always.
Otherwise, we’d have won the War on Drugs some time ago.
I’d fear more crime with prohibition than without it.
Note in the story how it says some are found with empty bottles of mouthwash. You’ve got to be pretty desperate to get high off of mouthwash! And how do you go about prohibiting mouthwash? Shoe polish? Sterno? Some people resort to ANYTHING.
No, some form of community treatment is a better solution, but if certain people are predisposed to a predilection to getting high I’d say maybe open up a warm safe alcohol “den”.
OR, let them die. Sad, cold-hearted, but honestly, how do you stop someone so determined to destroy themselves?
Oh, yeah, Mount Denial-I.
Perfect name for the Emperor with No Clothes!
Hello Adder,
Merry Christmas!
While courting my childhood sweetheart (now wife) in AK, I was made aware of this situation. Another story, but I was flying there once a month from KS.
She worked for the Native hospital corporation. They are a very powerful force in AK. My spouse has said that some of the natives were very hateful to her at first because she was white. As they got to know her, they became very friendly. Tough deal up there.. in many ways no different than what is happening in the lower 48.
My daughter was a therapist at the Pinetop Apache res. Downright depressing. She left in Sept.
It is an everyday kind of thing. I have seen the good it has done even though I do not follow it. Rebel that I am, I had to take my own path. I did it for me, so I could live. I am going to ramble a bit and let it be known that I have seen friends die. Slowly and horribly *ex wifes father was bleeding out of every hole including his eyes* he had bought several cases of Vodka and, well I am sure you know. A couple friends did some really insane crap (I will not go there). Others just used a gun or a ligature of some fashion. I will not detail family history.
Alcohol has its uses, but some of us are highly allergic. Especially around the holidays. I thank you for bringing this up. I hope a FReeper sees this and heals or helps.
I have a lot of kids in one of my teams and I try to educate without alienating them. Give them little snippets and put bugs in their precious little ears. I always hope it gets through.
God Bless what you do. Merry Christmas and happy hunting. Love to you.
Yep, prohibit it - then they wouldn't be able to get drunk anymore!
Problem solved!
Regards,
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/behind-the-smoke-screen.html
No sympathy-
It’s a weakness of character.
Control/Stop if you want, die if don’t. Choose.
And don’t tell me “It’s an addiction they can’t choose!”.
One of many of the good lord’s tools for cleansing this earth.
Just wait til Constitutional Carry is functioning law in all “57” states.
It will be “wild west” for a time, until the last of the wothless d-bags have drawn down on the wrong folks.
øbama has done absolutely NOTHING in eight years to deal with this scourge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.