Holman (Oct 16/06) - Imagine if your neighbours could read your receipts from the liquor store - and then decide if you drink too much.

This might happen in Holman, if a petition succeeds in convincing the hamlet to reinstate alcohol control.

Barbara Memogana, a teacher at Helen Kavlak school, has been gathering signatures for a petition since Oct. 3, asking the hamlet to hold a plebescite.

It's her hope the hamlet will ask residents to create a board of five or six people, which would approve all mail orders to the Inuvik liquor store.

If orders were deemed excessive -- perhaps anything more than a bottle of hard alcohol and a case of beer per week, but there is no fixed standard - the board could stop the order.

Memogana, who teaches Inuinnaqtun at the school, said the measure would help curb, what she called, rampant alcoholism and substance abuse in the community.

She's tired of students missing class to go drinking, and said she's heard too many stories about parents becoming abusive.

"It's affecting our community mentally and physically," she said.

Memogana added she also believed alcohol is responsible for some crime and violence which has been happening in the community.

"There is too much abuse," she said. "It's becoming a community concern."

On Oct. 5, her second day collecting signatures, Memogana had already won the support of 46 adults and 87 children.

Her signature drive hasn't made much headway since then because she has been busy with school.

The collected signatures represent more than a quarter of Holman's population, which is 436.

Supporters like her husband, Matthew Kuptana, said it's simply time to limit how much alcohol people can buy.

"It's getting out of hand. We've got broken windows and people just put plywood over them instead of replacing them," he said.

Kuptana added that Holman used to have an alcohol limit in the 1980s, but that the policy was discarded.

"We should bring it back, it's the best idea in a long time," he said.

Constable Greg Fast of the Holman RCMP - who once worked in the dry town of Fort Good Hope - said he's unsure if he supports the idea.

On one hand, he said, it's clear that alcohol causes crime and disorder.

"It makes it busier for us, and crime does increase," he said.

But on the other hand, Fast said, bootlegging might worsen if alcohol becomes limited.

He said Holman already has problems with illegal alcohol sales, such as people buying cases of 60-oz vodka bottles and selling them at double or triple the regular retail price.

"It's very difficult to convict people for bootlegging," he added.

But while no single solution will be perfect, Memogana said, her plan might be a good first step to helping people change their habits - even if it's embarrassing for some people to have their orders limited.

"We also need counselling programs to help people deal with their addictions," Memogana said.