Drunk In Anchorage

Aha… Thought you were going to read a funny story about me being drunk.  Not that there are not a few floating around out there but this is not one of them.

For the most part, I lost my taste for alcohol shortly after I moved to Anchorage and saw that my biological Father who I came up to take care of was still an active alcoholic after telling me he only had a nip now and then.  Right, a nip of whisky, a nip of beer, a nip of white wine…  All day long starting at 6 am.  Even before church (well, sorta’; it was Unitarian) but still.  I have watched my entire life as his drinking destroyed relationship after relationship personal and family, job after job, and wreaked havoc upon the lives of the his children he abandoned.    

About 7 weeks after I moved here, on New Year’s Day 2011, I had to put him in the hospital with pancreatitis for 2 weeks.  The first week was an experience that no child should ever have to see; your incoherent parent tied down to a hospital bed in a diaper going through withdrawal.    

Since I was his caretaker, I made the choice to devote myself entirely to his care and was happy to do it but didn’t go out of my way to make friends or go out socially unless it was a work related event.  The DUI laws in Anchorage are very strict so I do not drink more than a couple of drinks if I am out and driving.  If I am going out and know I want to drink more than a couple, I take a cab which I rather like.  Someone picks me up at my door, I don’t have to hunt for parking, then they come and pick me up and deliver me back to my door.  Roundtrip cab fare from where I live to downtown is about $15.00, so, with tip, about $25.00.  Extremely less expensive that the cost associated with a DWI, getting in an accident and possibly harming someone else or myself.     

In my research for my move, I read that the alcoholism rate in Alaska is very high with the native population but didn’t really give it much thought because there are always alcoholics no matter where one lives.  But it didn’t take long to figure out it is a large social issue here.  There are villages where alcohol is banned and the penalties for bringing it in are quite high.  People get very creative in trying to smuggle liquor in just as if it were narcotic drugs.   If one can get booze in, a fifth can sell for several hundred dollars. 

A couple of days after arriving in Anchorage, I went to the grocery store closest to my Father’s home around seven in the morning and right inside the door, I literally had to step over a man who was passed out drunk against the cash register stand.  Of course I was horrified and went to find someone to tell and they acted like it was not a big deal at all.  When I got home and told my Father he told me the native drinking problem was so bad here that instead of taking everyone to jail for public drunk, they had Community Patrol vans you called and they come and pick up the inebriates and take them somewhere to sober up then they turn them loose.  Hmmm…  I never would have imagined an issue would be tackled so realistically in a city. 

It is a very common sight to see intoxicated people walking the streets and one has to watch out for pedestrians because they will step out in front of you or cross a busy street in the middle of traffic. I have seen them beating the crap out of each other at a bus stop or fighting or making out as they walk down the street.  About 95% of the car pedestrian accidents In Anchorage are the fault of a drunk walker and these people walk the streets year round.

If you office in downtown or midtown, then you get used to seeing them around. My office is located in midtown off a main intersection and we are in the “flight path” so to speak of the people walking the few miles up outside downtown where the shelters are located.  They don’t usually bother you but they do leave messes in our parking lot and have stolen the metal bucket our ice melt was in that was in a corner in the front door area (they dumped the ice melt and took the bucket).  The only reason I think they haven’t stolen our planters out front is because they are very heavy tree stumps with the planter container screwed into them.

This past December, I happened to look up and see a guy walking towards our front door obviously five plus sheets to the wind.  As he got right in front of the window, he unzipped his pants and started to take a whizz so I said something to the others and before I could get my fracking phone unlocked to take a pic, one of the guys ran him off.  

About a week or so later during a frigid cold spell where we were in single digits and there was ice on the ground, I looked up and saw a very intoxicated man stumbling down our slippery sidewalk and thought he was falling down but he was headed to sit down in front of our window.  I had one of the guys go out and try to roust him but he was absolutely incoherent, then he passed out.  Since I knew he was just drunk, I called the Community Patrol to come pick him up instead of calling the police.   The dispatcher told me it would be a little while since due to the extreme temperatures, they were quite busy.  It took about an hour but they did come and pick him up and I could tell immediately that to do that job, you had to love and want to help people.  They were very patient with him because once they woke him, it didn’t look like he wanted to go anywhere and it took about fifteen minutes to get him into the van, but they did and away they drove with another delivery for the drunk tank.

After living here, I understand the concept behind and am a proponent of the community vans as they take care of a problem with intoxicated people that was probably a drain on the resources of the police department before the program.  It does make one pause sometimes and think of how blessed they are to not be afflicted with the disease of alcoholism.