Alcohol: Cradle to Grave ERIC NEWHOUSE HAZELDEN® Alcohol Cradle to Grave This page intentionally left blank Alcohol Cradle to Grave ERIC NEWHOUSE HAZELDEN® Hazelden Center City, Minnesota 55012-0176 1-800-328-0094 1-651-213-4590(Fax) www.hazelden.org ©2001by Hazelden Foundation All rights reserved. Published 2001 Printed in the United States of America No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Newhouse, Eric, 1945– Alcohol : cradle to grave / Eric Newhouse. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-56838-734-2(hardcover) 1. Alcoholism—Montana—Great Falls. 2. Alcoholics—Montana—Great Falls. 3. Drinking of alcoholic beverages—Montana—Great Falls. 4. Great Falls (Mont.)—Social conditions. I. Title. HV5298.G74 N48 2001 362.292'09786'611—dc21 2001024805 05 04 03 02 01 6 5 4 3 2 1 Author’s note The articles reprinted in this book were originally published in 1999by the Great Falls Tribune.Hazelden has reprinted a slightly revised version of the original series with the permission of the Great Falls Tribune and Gannett Co. Inc. Photos by Larry Beckner are also used with their permission. Cover design by David Spohn Interior design by Elizabeth Cleveland Typesetting by Stanton Publication Services, Inc. This book is gratefully dedicated to all those courageous people who shared their darkest secrets with me in hopes of helping others conquer alcoholism. To the Great Falls Tribune and particularly Executive Editor Jim Strauss and Publisher Pat Frantz, who gave me the opportunity to investigate a community problem. And to God, without whom none of this could have been possible. This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix January How alcohol permeates a community during a day. 1 February Genetic reasons why alcoholism is a medical disease. 23 March Fetal alcohol syndrome: how drinking harms children. 41 April The alcoholic makes the whole family sick. 57 May Teenage keg parties and college binge drinking. 75 June Readers tell us that drinking fuels domestic violence. 101 July Drunken drivers destroy lives. 117 August Alcoholism is epidemic on Indian reservations. 127 September Alcohol abuse keeps people off the job and in hospitals. 149 October Nearly all of Montanta’s prisoners are addicted to alcohol or drugs. 167 November Alcoholism costs the state of Montana more than the university system. 183 December How do we treat this disease? 205 Postscript 229 Bibliography 239 About the Author 243 This page intentionally left blank Preface Great Falls,Montana, is a small town (population about 60,000) that straddles the Missouri River. It was named after the Great Falls of the Missouri, which forced the Lewis and Clark expedition to take a long hike nearly two centuries ago. The river still identifies the town to this day. The River’s Edge Trail allows walkers, joggers, bikers, and in-line skaters to enjoy the Missouri and its bluffs for a dozen miles downstream, then back again on the other side of the stream. But a second river flows through the town, and it was one that I wanted to explore. It’s the river of booze trucked into town each day and sloshed down each night in the town’s many watering holes. Every newspaper editor and reporter sees the flotsam and jetsam of that stream: the divorces, lost jobs, battered wives and children, crime, drunken drivers, car wrecks, medical bills. It’s just that we’re all so accustomed to this debris underfoot that we rarely wonder why it’s there—or if it’s necessary. Several years ago, the Great Falls Tribunedid a series of stories on the unsolved murders on one Indian reservation in Montana. All were alcohol- related, and most were unsolvable because all the witnesses were too inebri- ated to cooperate. Those stories stuck in the mind of the Tribune’sexecutive editor, Jim Strauss. I, in turn, had been watching the national tobacco settlement unfold in the late 1990s and had been impressed with the way the lawyers had tied together the social and economic ramifications of smoking. Why hadn’t the newspapers provided that perspective, I wondered. ix