[Jade21045]

Is is true that Australian Aboriginals have a lower tolerance for alcohol than people of a non-Aboriginal background? If so, why?

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Name : Jade21045, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 22, City : Bairnsdale, State : NA, Country : Australia, Occupation : Student, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[ACC25044]

I’ve heard the same lie said about indigenous people worldwide. Yes, there is a serious alcoholism problem among many native peoples. But that problem did not exist until our lands were taken away and our rights to practice our religions and lifestyles severely curtailed or outright banned. Individually, we may be less used to alcohol because it was not part of our lifestyles for other than ritual reasons. But it seems that whites tend to view those of us who have a problem with this drug as somehow more overwhelmed by it than whites themselves are. For the record, there was a study done by the Center for Disease Control in the US only two years ago which concluded native people were the ethnic group LEAST likely to abuse alcohol, with whites the most likely. It would not surprise me at all if the same thing were true of Australia’s aboriginals.

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Name : ACC25044, Race : Mexican and American Indian, City : Phoenix, State : AZ, Country : United States, Occupation : Grad student in history, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[David Williams]

I have seen references various studies about Alcohol and non-whites. However I notice variations in alcohol tolerance amongst my white acquaintances here in the UK. It does seem that people who drink too much like to blame genetics, mixing drinks, food, hunger, ANYTHING rather than take personal responsibility. In the same way, the effort that goes into making alcohol available to poor, disenfranchised people (like many Native Australians) is not matched in by the efforts to give them rights and access. But it can be easier for more comfortable people to believe that ‘their’ alcohol problems lie in their genes.

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Name : David Williams, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black Caribbean/British, Religion : Christian, Age : 44, City : London, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : trainer, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Matt-Tolley]

Hi Jade There is no truth to the ‘firewater’ theory that Aboriginal people have a biologically lower tolerance for alcohol. Taking factors like weight and gender into consideration, an Aboriginal person will become inebriated at exactly the same rate as a non-Aboriginal person. In the National Drug Strategy surveys of 1993 and 1994 it was found that there was a lower proportion of current regular drinkers in the Indigenous population (33 percent) than in the general population (45 per cent). Over twice as many urban Indigenous people said that they no longer drank alcohol than did their counterparts in the general population (22 per cent versus 9 per cent). In the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey 1994 a large proportion of Indigenous people across Australia – 19 per cent of males and 34 per cent of females – reported that they had never drunk alcohol. This is varied from about 9 per cent in Tasmania to 30 per cent in the Northern Territory for males and from about 15 per cent to over 60 per cent in the Northern Territory for females. Males (25 per cent) and females (48 per cent) in rural areas were most likely to say they had never drunk alcohol. This is not to deny the obvious problems caused by the abuse of alcohol by many Indigenous people. Surveys also show that those Aboriginal people who drink are more likely to do so in excess. The stereotyping of Aboriginal people as problem drinkers is exacerbated by the often public nature of Aboriginal drinking. Many aboriginal people either prefer, for cultural reasons, to drink outdoors or are forced to drink in public because of homelessness and/or the discriminatory attitudes of some licensees. This makes Aboriginal drinking and drinkers much more visible than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

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Name : Matt-Tolley, City : Canberra, State : NA, Country : Australia, 

[Jade]

I don’t think Aboriginals have a lower intolerance to alcohol. Many aboriginal communities are isolated and services such as a local GP, youth or communty education isn’t available to them. In these isolated towns there is basically nothing to do and a solution is drinking amongst other things.

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Name : Jade, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Spanish, Religion : Catholic, Age : 16, City : Sydney, State : NA, Country : Australia, Occupation : Student, Social class : Upper class, 

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