'An alcoholic?! Me?! No way!'

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

A barrio acquaintance, one who is not only very fond of marijuana and the hip psychedelic tusi but has also been a petty peddler of same, called me an alcoholic the other day.

A case of, an outside observer might say, one addict knowing another.

One man's alcoholic is another's merely mild drinker, right?

However, seeing how this acquaintance, in her early 20s, has barely worked a day in her life — outside of her minor drug dealing — and usually appears more out of it than with it, I initially shrugged off her labelling me an alcoholic.

Yet, as an Irishman who likes the occasional beer that often leads to a questioning of my relationship with alcohol, her remark did end up bugging me a little.

'Am I an alcoholic?'

Habit addict

To answer that, we must define what an alcoholic is.

One dictionary definition describes an alcoholic as 'a person addicted to intoxicating drinks.' Another definition is 'somebody who drinks alcohol to excess habitually.'

Those definitions, however, in using words such as 'addicted', 'excess' and 'habitually', are open to much interpretation.

Some commentators and scholars on the subject dismiss the concept of addiction outright. They see it as a mere cover for one's failure to take responsibility.

According to this school of thought, it's not an innate, incurable addiction that's at play but rather a very fixable fixation. It's a harmful habit that can be replaced with a more beneficial — or at least less-bad — one. What's lacking is willpower, as well as any real desire to change in many instances.

'That four-day booze-free stint coincided with an annoying head cold. Was my body telling me something? A case of a beer a day keeps colds at bay?'

In other words, people know they're doing something that's not good for their overall well-being but they do it anyway. (Of course, few of us live vice-free — even exercise can become a problem if one overdoes it regularly. Some vices, though, are more damaging than others.)

Mild imbiber

Returning to our definitions of alcoholic, it's easier, at least officially, to find consensus for what excess and habitually mean.

In Ireland, a standard drink is defined as one which contains 10 grams of pure alcohol. The advice is that a man should drink no more than 17 such servings a week, a woman no more than 11.

If one drinks alcohol more days in a week than not, few would argue that this is habitual.

On that last one, despite publishing a few months ago a hopeful post, Abandoning the beer standard, I've been quite the habitual drinker of late.

The longest run I've had without a beer in 2023 has been four days, and that was on one occasion only. Frustratingly, that four-day booze-free stint coincided with an annoying head cold. Was my body telling me something? A case of a beer a day keeps colds at bay?

Plenty of downtime this year and not wanting to be in my shared accommodation for too long at any one time are two big reasons for this regular revelling, tame as it normally is.

What's more, as a pastime, sipping on a Barrio Santandercito tienda beer is a fairly economical activity compared to some other pursuits one could get up to in Bogotá.

As alluded to, in terms of excess, my consumption levels each time I drink are nothing like they were in the past.

Where previously when I would go at it, as we Irish say, I'd have at least four litres of Poker beer or the equivalent, these days I'm usually looking for the exit door after two or at most three. (Do note, Poker's alcohol by volume [ABV] is four per cent.)

So my binge-drinking days do appear to be largely behind me. Compared to other regular drinkers, I think it's fair to put me in the mild category. I'm certainly no Brendan Behan — no sniggering — who described himself as 'a drinker with a writing problem.' Some might say writing is my main problem and I should give that up!

Constant craving

Whatever the case, there is another factor to be considered: cravings.

This ties in with addiction, whether one believes addiction to be a genuine disease or not.

I surmise that people who I consider to be alcoholics crave alcohol, it's constantly in their thoughts. When they get up in the morning, if a beer or whatever was put in front of them, they'd have no issue downing it. What usually prevents such types from doing so is a job commitment or suchlike.

I, on the other hand, rarely if ever desire an alcoholic drink first thing. For me, imbibing has a time and a place — the time is normally late in the evening, the place is a tienda/public house, certainly not my own dwelling.

And as I've already pointed out, I'm more than content to retire to my bed after a couple of litres. Where perhaps in my earlier drinking days I suffered from fomo, fear of missing out, these days I'm more in the jomo, joy of missing out, camp.

So, yes, I do like beer and I may regularly drink more units of alcohol per week than most health experts recommend.

Nonetheless, life in my late 30s doesn't revolve around the next alcohol-fuelled session like it did to some extent in my 20s and early 30s.

Of course, how I feel and what I believe is one thing. How others view me is another. Perception is reality in this regard. Yet, it's only the perceptions and opinions of certain people in my life that I should really value. Others are best ignored.
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Paths to cleaner living

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

One has to admire an individual who realises that he/she has a personal problem and takes corrective action. As a species, we are often quick to see the faults of others yet are blind to our own shortcomings.

There are always hurdles to overcome on the path to cleaner living ...

Beer barrios

When it comes to drug addiction or simply just bad/self-destructive habits with mind-altering substances, be they legal or otherwise, stopping the rot can be particularly tricky.

With alcohol consumption, the widely accepted socialising drug, a heretofore regular drinker may have to change his/her life considerably, at least initially, to say no.

Personally, if I decided to cut beer drinking entirely from my life, I think I'd have to leave Bogotá. Or at least move out of my current barrio. This is because the majority of my socialising revolves around the tienda and with it a few litrazos (a litre bottle, that is) of Poker.

I hasten to add that this isn't a daily occurrence. Two or three times per week, max. And, with age, I'm getting better, for the most part, at knowing when I've had my fill even if, to use an Irish word, the craic is mighty when I decide to head home (do note, craic here means 'enjoyable social activity', lest one think of something else).

It's because I'm more in the jomo (joy of missing out) camp these days rather than with the fomo (fear of missing out) brigade.

'From a marijuana chain smoker and seemingly daily beer drinker — not a good combination for a taxi driver — to a fundamentalist Christian (of sorts) in a few weeks.'

Yet, for those who have trouble knowing when to stop imbibing and the like, a lively-ish city with a beer-drinking culture can be quite a dangerous place to be. There are, quite literally, temptations at every corner.

Thus, in such circumstances, when one reaches a point where it's a case of 'make lifestyle changes now or be left with no life', it requires quite an amount of willpower to overcome the "demons".

Christian convalescence

Some, as I touched on a few years ago in Strength in belief, find the answer to their problems in God.

One barrio friend has recently taken this path. From a marijuana chain smoker and seemingly daily beer drinker — not a good combination for a taxi driver — to a fundamentalist Christian (of sorts) in a few weeks.

While I may not agree with his new-found religious beliefs — or if not exactly new-found, at least renewed enthusiasm for Christianity — I am impressed with the transformation. Considering his previous form, it could be said the end — in this case, being "clean" — justifies the means.

What's more, he has changed his ways without becoming a recluse. Apart from a few weeks back in the land of his birth on Colombia's Caribbean coast, he's still to be found socialising in the barrio, just this time with a gaseosa (fizzy drink) in hand rather than a beer (we'll cut him a little slack for the dangerous sugar indulgence).

As I've mentioned above, I'm not sure if I could do the same; hang out in the barrio and not drink beer. Not indefinitely in any case. I'd simply prefer not to go out.

I like to think that if I decided to go cold turkey, I could do it more easily in the countryside. A rural retreat, removed, as best one can be, from other human beings with fewer potentially harmful temptations.

There is another school of thought suggesting that if one were to "settle down" i.e. enter a relationship, this would also "tame the beast" so to put it. Whatever the dubious truth of that, one may be just too accustomed to singlehood for it to happen any time soon.

So Mother Nature and a modicum of isolation; I see that as my path to cleaner living, should I decide that it's needed. That's the theory anyway.

City life, its many evils notwithstanding, does, however, still have its advantages and appeal. At times.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

The thuggish thief: a growing problem for Colombia?

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]
A glance at most reports into the levels of crime and violence in Colombia shows that the country has gradually been getting safer since the turn of the millennium.

Some Colombians blame Venezuelans for a perceived rise in violent crime.

The headline-grabbing one — and the easiest to measure really — is how the homicide rate has dramatically fallen, from almost 70 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002 to just over 24 per 100,000 in 2020.

Not-so-decent criminals

Other insecurity issues — theft, violent crime, rape and suchlike — are more difficult to both accurately measure and interpret. 

This is because they aren't always reported and thus aren't counted while, conversely, any apparent rise could be down to an increase in victims coming forward and/or better detection by official bodies.

So the "real" picture could actually be better. Or it could be worse. It's not for nothing we have the saying, 'there are lies, damned lies and statistics.'

Whatever the current situation is in Colombia — homicides, for one, are on track to increase this year compared to both 2020 and 2019 — the perception here in Bogotá and elsewhere is that violent crime has shot up over the last couple of years.

The belief, supported by numerous anecdotes, is that many armed assailants are no longer just content to steal from their defenceless victims, victims who put up no resistance whatsoever that is, but the delinquents also seem hellbent on inflicting serious bodily harm on their targets.

'One hypothesis is that this increase in violent crime is down to the arrival of a different breed of thief from the East i.e. Venezuelans.'

In the past, so it goes, most robbers just wanted their booty. So if it was handed over to them immediately the chances of a physical attack were practically zero. The 'ordinary decent criminal' one could say, to borrow from the 2000 movie.

Now, however, the idea is proliferating that wanton violence is increasingly a part of such robberies. And, in some quarters, it's led to a hypothesis that this is down to the arrival of a different breed of thief from the East i.e. Venezuelans.

It's no revelation to state that some Venezuelans commit crimes here.

I recall an El Tiempo article from a few months back highlighting the nationality of those arrested for various offences. The percentage of Venezuelans on the list was slightly higher than their proportion in the population as a whole. Again, one must treat such statistics with caution.

Is drug use contributing to more violent crimes?

In addition, Bogotá Mayor Claudia López has previously reflected publicly what appears to be a popular opinion amongst the city's residents that Venezuelans are responsible for this rise — perceived or otherwise — in violent crime.

Drugged-up delinquents

Nationality aside, one has to ask why there seems to be a new-found desire in some thieves to draw blood when robbing people?

I'm not a thief but I would have thought that the principal goal was to take whatever can be taken with as little fuss as possible, as quickly as possible. Wasting time inflicting injuries on cowed victims seems counterproductive to me, potentially detrimental to the "business".

I say detrimental because in these parts most people expect to suffer from thefts from time to time. Thus, non-violent robberies are almost accepted. When violence is introduced, assailants can expect to see greater pushback from state authorities and the community at large.

One theory for the bloodier thefts is that they are conducted by drugged-up delinquents not tied to any "disciplined" gang. They are their own, dangerously deranged bosses.

There might be something to that. In a more general sense, the British journalist and author Peter Hitchens, for one, is quick to point to the link between violent crime and long-term drug use, particularly marijuana.

Throw in a feeling of hopelessness and associated desperation and one can at least understand the temptation to steal.

It could be done without the reckless violence, though. It rarely ends well for either victim or assailant.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz". 

 

'Make mine a shot (rather than pot)'

Colombia’s Minister for Health and Social Protection, Alejandro Gaviria, created a mini-stir recently by claiming that alcohol consumption was more harmful than smoking marijuana.

His remarks come amidst moves in Congress here to legalise the use of the drug for medical purposes.

Well, they do say we should get more 'greens' into us ...

Mild marijuana

In one sense, it’s a bit puzzling to understand why what he said caused consternation in some circles; in reality, it was far from shocking. For from a societal point of view, he’s probably not far off the mark. Excessive alcohol consumption is very often at the heart of violence both here in Colombia and across the globe. It can destroy families and friendships.

In contrast, you’d do well to find an aggressive person high on pot; rather, such people are generally very placid.

So looking at it that way, if we are going to indulge in some sort of drug, perhaps we’d all be better off smoking marijuana instead of gulping down bottles of beer. ‘Make peace, not war’ and all that jazz.

However, at the individual level, anecdotally anyway, regular pot smokers tend to be quite lazy and lack motivation to do even the simplest of things. Maybe that’s just my bad luck and experience? There are, though, at least some supporting studies.*

On the contrary, and again this is a personal observation, consistent drinkers – not out-and-out alcoholics that is to say – seem more proactive when it comes to work and day-to-day activities. (They might just be a little crankier than non-drinkers, at times.) It could be argued that this is down to many societies’ long association with alcohol. Our bodies have learnt to cope better with it than other drugs.**

What’s more, the idea of consciously inhaling damaging fumes into your body isn’t exactly the most natural or life-prolonging thing to do. Although, in a city such as Bogotá, puffing on a joint mightn't do you much more harm than breathing in the urban air.

On the other hand, we all must ingest water to survive, the chief component of most alcoholic products. Plus, in the right amounts – as can be said for marijuana, too, of course – the likes of beer and wine can be beneficial for your health.

Bavaria, the home of beer in Colombia. Sure when it's free ...

That’s pretty much the case for most things in life: Whatever you’re having, have it in moderation; 'less is more’. Knowing your limits is the key.

Bearing all that in mind, if I was pushed to choose either alcohol or marijuana as my regular vice, I’d be firmly siding with the former.

It's horses for courses, I guess.

The bottom line with all these things should be that if there are harmful effects, it's the individual user who bears them. Alas, that's not always the case.

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*For example, see Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says.

**The Koreans obviously don’t believe this though: ‘Irish alcoholism nature’ reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea.