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Restrictions come and go Report authors spoke to residents in 37 communitiesMiranda Scotland Northern News Services Published Monday, November 26, 2012
Part of the problem is usually residents know who the bootleggers in the area are but they don't report them because of family ties or community dynamics, said Carol Hopkins the group's spokesperson. "Oftentimes the burden is then carried solely by the First Nations policing or RCMP," Hopkins said. This year the NNAPF released a paper on First Nations Alcohol Policies. The organization gathered its information by conducting a literature review and by speaking to residents in 37 First Nations communities across Canada. The review revealed that 80 per cent of interviewees felt alcohol bylaws were ineffective in their community, Hopkins said. Also, a paper that looked at community-driven alcohol policies in Canada's North from 1970 to 2008 found that many communities that adopted alcohol policies later removed them only to return to regulation a few years later. In fact, in 1976 Behchoko, then Rae-Edzo, was the first community in the territory to enforce prohibition. By 1990 the alcohol policy had been removed. And yet it was reintroduced three years ago. Nonetheless, Hopkins said, research shows that, from time to time, prohibition or alcohol restrictions are effective, especially in times of crisis. "Then you have more of a community response ... so it would be more of an effort for search and seizures," Hopkins said. "But those kinds of efforts are short-lived." What's important, she added, is that there is a growing commitment among communities to teach harm reduction as opposed to just focusing on encouraging abstinence. For instance, there is a desire to help adolescents who want to experiment with alcohol to do so responsibly. "There is a lot of interest in terms of how do we support youth in their experimenting and exploring to reduce the risks that are associated with that kind of behavior," Hopkins said.
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