Why is alcohol abuse so bad among native Americans.

[Rod1]

From Alaska to Argentina, native americans and their descendants seem to be far more vulnerable to alcoholism than any other group.

Ill say that personally as someone who carries native genes, ill say that my liver is 100% native because i cant hold my booze, but unlike real natives i also cant stand booze, i find the taste bitter and off-putting.

I only drink beer when in a grillhouse or seafood place and i order the lightest, most watered down version of it.

Reading a bit about it the only thing i can find is that natives have trouble metabolizing alcohol, but it says nothing about the addiction to it.

Also i dont think you can claim cultural reasons since its all over the continent.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

They have a gene or something that doesn't allow them to process it like most other people.


Haven't read about it in a long time, but it's something along those lines.



But also..

 

[sub_thug]

Aren't Natives largely incentivized to live and work on reservations? Reservation schools are typically shit, crime is high, and don't leave that cycle of reservation life. I can see why someone who doesn't feel like they have a strong sense to determine their own future turns to alcohol or drugs.

 

[oldshadow]

I have no proof but I believe it's really in the genes. Every native I know gets bat shit crazy when they drink and seems predisposition for addiction.

 

[Seaside]

A once great race one of best to ever be. Now largely genocided.

North and Central natives hardly exist like less 1% population of a %. In central america male lineage dead and it to exitse in mestizos on materneal l side.

In far south america they died. In nor south america except bolivia and peru they died or were assimilatrd and race mixed into non existence with make line destroyed.

That real tragedy of world. While all othwr people explode in population.

 

[Bloodworth]

They like tobacco as well

 

[uncommon]

i always see natives as a people who find meaning in everything, and with the introduction if a primarily nihilistic activity such as drinking it may shatter their preconcieved notions of meaning which leads to a downward spiral.

but why wouldnt other ethnicities fall prey to it as much? i guess they have better distractions to negative emotion like industry entertainment ect.

 

[Rod1]

Aren't Natives largely incentivized to live and work on reservations? Reservation schools are typically shit, crime is high, and don't leave that cycle of reservation life. I can see why someone who doesn't feel like they have a strong sense to determine their own future turns to alcohol or drugs.

I mean native Americans as the people that came to the continent (or continents depending on nomenclature) through the Behring Strait.

In Mexico they dont live in reservations, they live on their ancestral lands or in the cities.

 

[rokzilla]

I was in a bar in a small town called The Dalles on the Columbia River. They have video poker along the back wall and as I drank there was a native woman playing getting drunker and drunker. One of my buddy’s was watching this unfold and joking around about her falling off the stool. Well as we watched her laughing she starts wobbling on the chair and in my mind I’m think this is it. She steadys herself, reaches back, pulls her dress to the side and takes a shit right off the back of the stool. We left after that. I can’t say they’re all this bad with alcohol but there’s definitely a trend.

 

[cleetus]

Buffalo.

 

[Natty Dread]

A once great race one of best to ever be. Now largely genocided.

North and Central natives hardly exist like less 1% population of a %. In central america male lineage dead and it to exitse in mestizos on materneal l side.

In far south america they died. In nor south america except bolivia and peru they died or were assimilatrd and race mixed into non existence with make line destroyed.

That real tragedy of world. While all othwr people explode in population.

No one asked to be born.

 

[permafrost]

There sustems are not used to alchohol. They have only had access to alchohol for a couple of years while the white man has been drinking for thousands of years

 

[Rockapotomuss]

I don't know if it's a gene. The Irish have the same problem. I think it's cultural. They need to get off those fucking reserves and stop getting hand outs if they ever want to gain independence and improve their quality of life. But they won't admit that they even get hand outs. Haven't passed the denial stage. It's gonna be a long road ahead before dignity is restored. Still have more promise than the Irish tho.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Combination of their lack of enzymes (well, more specifically issue with isozymes) that deal metabolism -- specifically dehydrogenase (ADH) and (ALDH)

That coupled with it only being in their world for a few hundreds of years and you get a group that just cant handle their liquor

Ive always wondered if they have a higher tolerance to cocaine

 

[Harmonica]

Reading a bit about it the only thing i can find is that natives have trouble metabolizing alcohol

That's racist.

 

[syct23]

Don't forget we are highly allergic to blankets as well...

Sad.

 

[bushman505]

It gets pretty bad up here in Alaska. Lots of natives will come into a bit of cash and blow it all on booze then not have any food in their houses to feed their kids. They end up going to the schools or government offices and begging because they know in the bush there's usually a large surplus of food in places where people actually work.

I'm expecting things to get bad here pretty soon as the days are getting shorter and the river is starting to freeze which means anybody with a 4 wheeler can make the hour drive into a bigger area and drive back loaded down with cases of booze.

The natives up here really over do it. They will just dissapear in their houses drunk for like 2 solid weeks too fucked up to even leave the house while their kids are running around the villages basically getting cared for by other village members.

There's a very strange relation to booze and lack of financial responsibility out here, when people collect their PFD checks, rather than buying clothes and food, they buy pizzas and x boxes and TVs then that stuff ends up getting sold off for drugs and booze later on and still there's no food in the house or decent clothes on their kids. Massive divorce rates, obesity, alcoholism, abuse, murder, drownings these are all realities for Alaskan natives.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

I was in a bar in a small town called The Dalles on the Columbia River. They have video poker along the back wall and as I drank there was a native woman playing getting drunker and drunker. One of my buddy’s was watching this unfold and joking around about her falling off the stool. Well as we watched her laughing she starts wobbling on the chair and in my mind I’m think this is it. She steadys herself, reaches back, pulls her dress to the side and takes a shit right off the back of the stool. We left after that. I can’t say they’re all this bad with alcohol but there’s definitely a trend.

Yeah but how'd she look?

 

[Unsurprised Diaz]

I usually go up to the nearby Indian reserve about 45 minutes north of my place to buy smokes and alcohol since they are really cheap up there. This one time I bought a bunch of Fruity Vodka Cooler drinks for my wife. I will admit bringing them up to the front counter was a bit embarrassing for me.

After the purchase I left the store and out in the parking lot, a native American who just pulled in said to me "oh, you like those fruity vodka coolers?"

I replied a bit embarrassed: "Actually I got them for my wife"

He looked at me and smiled and said: "Oh, good trade, man"

 

[Rod1]

I usually go up to the nearby Indian reserve about 45 minutes north of my place to buy smokes and alcohol since they are really cheap up there. This one time I bought a bunch of Fruity Vodka Cooler drinks for my wife. I will admit bringing them up to the front counter was a bit embarrassing for me.

After the purchase I left the store and out in the parking lot, a native American who just pulled in said to me "oh, you like those fruity vodka coolers?"

I replied a bit embarrassed: "Actually I got them for my wife"

He looked at me and smiled and said: "Oh, good trade, man"