On 2021-05-13 1:32 p.m., Mike Duffy wrote:
> On Thu, 13 May 2021 09:32:39 -0400, Dave Smith wrote:
>
>> On 2021-05-13 4:17 a.m., Sqwertz wrote:
laska (they huff it).
>
>> It seems to be very popular in some communities.
>> [...] there were people passed out on the sidewalk.
>
> In their defence I need to point out a tangential situation wherein I
> called an ambulance for a kid that had passed out and hit his head on the
> sidewalk from being drunk & sleep-deprived in a below-freezing line-up
> for tickets to see The Boss. All his friends could not wake him up. I had
> one of those at-the-time ostentatious cell phones, and offered to call an
> ambulance. His only friend who said anything was not to call, that they
> knew he was passed-out just because of how much alcohol he had consumed.
>
> So I asked her how long they were planning to leave him lying on the
> sidewalk before dying of hypothermia / exposure, especially considering
> how much alcohol he had consumed.
>
> While she was coming up with an estimate, I dialed 911.
>
> He woke while they were picking him up, but so drunk he couldn't
> understand anything. They checked his head for marks / bumps but they
> still needed him to sign a waiver. It was on a clipboard, so they just
> stuck a pen in his hand and then moved the clipboard around like spinning
> a cat's-cradle to make him sign a perfectly neat "X" on the form.
>

Well yeah, That is really in their defense. Unfortunately, it is a
community with high rates of substance abuse. They like to blame
colonialization and residential schools, but the fact is that it started
with their first contact with alcohol. Those who whine about us not
hnouring treaties should have a look at some of the numbered treaties
with the tribes in the west. They forbid the sale and consumption of
alcohol to and by the Indians because it had wreaked havoc on them.

A friend of mine was part Inuit and his family moved back up to Baker
Lake. It was officially a dry community, but when the mail plane came
half the cargo was booze. Our friendship was seriously affected by his
drinking and drug use. I have to hand it to him, he kept it hidden
pretty well.