eople associate themselves with groups who are opposed to excessive drinking. Professionals such as judges, nurses, doctors and lawyers have been documented as being 'loners' in their drinking patterns.Studies have shown that alcohol and drug use can be a result of oppressed social conditions, that being a lack of money, decent schools and sub-standard housing in communities that lack social services. The lack of education directly relates to the attitude that many alcoholics possess the reality that they may be able to only find meaningless work. People who live in these conditions cannot see anything good happening in their environment, thus they drink. Oppressive social conditions and limited economic opportunities are a fact of life for the high concentrations of inner city minorities. I would also like to add that poverty within rural communities, while lacking much of the violence and crime of urban areas, is no less oppressive than the inner city. To define the problem of alcohol to the urban poor would indeed be unfair. A person doesn't have to be a member of a racial or ethnic minority to use alcohol. But race and ethnicity does figure into the equation of causes of increased alcohol use. Race isn't used in the genetic or biological sense but it has shaped the opportunity structure for many minorities. Based on my experiences, minorities do not feel that they fit into a 'white man's' society and it is rare to find many white people in the poor inner-city communities, except the likes of policeman, teachers and social workers. In the case of the American Indian they have had a long history of alcoholism even to this day. For them it began during the 1600s when they traded alcohol with the European settlers. During this period the 'Indians' had never drank alcohol before, thus they had no examples of how to drink alcohol in moderation. They quickly adopted a behavior of consistently drinking to the point of intoxicat...
