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Matt-TolleyParticipantHi 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,- AuthorPosts