Genetic Dispositions with Alcoholism

Alcoholism in Peru (and Mantaro Valley) Special Report (Parts 1 …

Special Project Report (May, 2007)

For the Universities and Mantaro Valley Region (Junin) on:

The Effects of Alcoholism on the Individual and Peruvian Society as a whole; and how to deal with it in Junin, and the Mantaro Valley of Peru

Agony in the Valley

Part One: is there a problem?

A) The Problem: the question in this overview (or report) on drugs and alcoholism within Junin, and the Mantaro Valley, of Peru, in particular, is: what are their effects on society, the individual, and what can be done to curve mood altering chemical (alcoholism) usage; and do the folks of the Region (and the Mantaro Valley) believe they have a problem: better put, how did we get to were we are at now with mood altering chemicals (drugs and alcohol): and what can we do about it? And the premise of this report, the hidden one that is, is to make aware to the reader, I do believe there is a problem.

In essence, how bad is the crisis for chemical usage and its abuse; and is it bad enough to make the people take action…? I worked for twenty years in dual disorders; that is to say, depression mixed with drugs or alcohol; to include: manic, psychotic and schizophrenic disorders coupled with alcoholism. In this report of sorts, I will be using Lima, Peru, and the USA for comparisons, and connecting them to the Central Region of Peru (which consists of some 12-million inhabitants); that is, Huancayo, and Junin, in particular I will be using some historical data to make my point, that being drugs and alcoholism exists, is a problem not only for the Central Region of Peru, but for all of Peru, and the Valley of Mantaro, along with Huancayo.

B) First we have to define the problem here (and if the people of the Valley believe that there is a problem; or I have to prove there is a problem), perhaps people in the valley do not think there is one, yet there are many suicides, most are alcohol related; also there are many car accidents (as any taxi driver will tell you: ¨Yes, there is a problem in the Mantaro Valley with alcohol.¨ I’ve asked many of them). Furthermore, family battering is also a drug and alcohol related issue, in the Huancayo region. In the USA, 90% of all crimes are drug or alcohol related, and I am sure the data is relatively the same here: as we shall look at some statistics in a moment.

C) The Robber: everyone will agree there are lots of them out there, and why are they robbing and what are they spending their money on (9 out of 10 times it is not because they cannot find a job either); believe it or not, robbers usually do not rob to feed their children, or cloth them, or pay the phone bill or electric bill with the money. They spend the money on alcohol, drugs, gambling and good times. Most robbers rob children, old folks, and women because they are easy prey; they do not want a heavy challenge, they want to get the money, gamble and drink it up it, and they got to continue to rob because they cannot hold a job down living this life style. This again becomes a societal problem. Drug addicts are a big issue in this area, as is alcoholism. And the police and communities seem not to be bothered all that much with it, almost accepting it as a normal norm for Huancayo.

Note (collateral data): With a number of people I’ve talked to about the local problems, particularly with alcoholism within Huancayo, and in particular, with children and teenagers–their main peeve is that there is a lack of cultural, literary, and social outlets, or groups available to them, and with this lack of activates, they feel the course of action they may take is alcohol and drugs: pointing out: economic issue.

Part Two: Some Statistics and Data:

Note: To understand the problem, one needs to go below the surface of the situation, that is where the problem lies, and where one needs to look at, where I have to bring to the reader the issues that exist (to show); and why. One may say after reading this, we all have a lack of resources here to do much about the problem; but we can look at that issue, later:

A) Population figures 1: there are about 12-million inhabitants in the Central Region; in the Junin region 1.2 million inhabitants which includes the Mantaro Valley; a little more than 365,000-thousand inhabitants live in Huancayo; in the inner city 118,000, (and some 488,000 inhabitants, if you take into account the rural area), and around seven to ten thousand in each of the many surrounding town-lets–and about 27-million inhabitants in Peru.

B) Population figures 2:out of this large figure of 27-million, there is about 10 to 13 percent of Peru’s population who are Alcoholics, problem drinkers, chronic drinkers (in the USA, it is about 8%) So out of the 27-million we have about 3.1 million inhabitants that drink to excess, around 80% of Peru’s adults drink, whereas, 70% of American adults drink.

(All these figures can be corroborated, and will not fall too short of my rounding off figures.)

Note 1: In referring to Alcohol Dependence I mean, Alcoholic; when I refer to Alcohol abuse, I am referring to, a problem drinker, perhaps with an antisocial disorder.

Note 2: Often alcohol abuse can be traced back to poverty, stress and issues with cultural mores; whereas, all these elements may exist in the Alcoholic, he has one other curse, he has the biochemical, psychological obsession, the genetic disposition, the saturation of the body with the drug or alcohol.

Note 3: Historically, the Inca Empire also had its excessive drinking habits, due to the trauma of conquest, or continued war, and surprised values, and often they became self-destructive, with behavior by toxic consumption.

C)Crimes and Deaths: In the Junin area, there were 3208 deaths in 2005, of these deaths, about 400 were drug and alcohol related; in Huancayo alone 1200 deaths, and about 160 can be related to drugs and alcohol.
D)The crimes in 2004, dealing with selling and usage: Total Crimes: 3818 of these (drug and alcohol related): 1516 were men, and 472 women.
E)Captured for usage of drugs and alcohol in 2004, were 6425 men, and 536 women.
F)Junin Accidents, in 2004, 271 citizens were hit by cars, and there were 403 car crashes, out of a population of 1.2 Million citizens.
G)Out of these figures above, 1202-people were in jail (or about 20% of the close to 7000 crimes that were committed). In general it has been said 90% of crimes in America are drug or alcohol related, meaning, the person committing the crime, or accident was under the influence. I do believe this figure could be higher for Peru, since all other previous figures are.
H)In one hospital in Peru, out of 276 patients that came in for alcohol and drug issues, 26.1% were there for strictly alcohol, and 22.1% were there for drugs and alcohol consumption, and 15.2 for Alcohol with pot usage (the difference were alcohol and other drug related chemicals mixed, not mentioned here). Again I stress this is one hospital of many, and it has been estimated most folks do not ever make it to the hospital.
I)Drug trafficking is still alive, but I only have date for 1997 to 1999, close to 8-years old. But it indicates this, 14319 drug traffickers were jailed in one year.

The point to be made here is, the point of which this report is trying to say, or make the reader aware of, is: there is a problem in Peru with drugs and alcohol usage, and in particular, the in Junin (Huancayo, Mantaro Valley area).

Part Three: Chemically Speaking and Societal Issues:

A) alcohol is a depressant, among other things, and those who have abused it beyond their capability to stop using it, often cannot define their problems, thinking they do not have one, or unwilling to admit they got one, and it has to do with alcoholism addiction, obsession, denial (and we can add drug usage into this paragraph also); which accounts for: 1) people going to work late, 2) lack of production at work 3) higher medical bills 4) many family issues that would not be issues had alcohol not been involved 5) thieves 6) child abuse 7) car accidents suicides 9) killings and crimes in general. Thus, Alcoholism and drug addiction, and we can add compulsive gambling, becomes a family issue, an individual issue, and a societal Issue.

Note: the question comes up: ´…can the social fiber of the Mantaro Valley in particular, and the Central Region (as a whole), take the strain of its intoxicating unrestrained inhabitants causing all this maladaptive behavior, and what is the legacy that will hand down to our siblings, meaning, if they do what they see, they also will become alcoholics or drug addicts, thus the future does not look too bright.

B) Three: Social Issue: As I pointed out, this is a societal problems, not just an individual one alone, even though the individual would like to believe it is his problem, and no one else’s, and has the right to drink, and do as he pleases, without limits, yes, he wants rights without responsibilities. But can society allow this, can society afford this for everyone around the drug or alcohol user becomes infected with the behavior of the user.

If the people or the government or society as a whole, cannot see it as a problem, but rather a custom, or tradition, it is hard to fix, or prevent. But again, we can see this by the crisis within the society, it is a problem. And it will not go away by itself. And I realize, as I sure all folks in Peru do, programs cost money. But let’s look at the cost of continued usage unabated:

1–In the Hills of Peru there are still coca-growing, as recent as 2006, seven people were ambushed
2–Social Development is unemotional (alcohol paralyzes emotions, thus, the emotional affect is flat); along with the lack of economic opportunities, for they do not develop for the user or the area involved (meaning the area copies its inhabitants, one usually needs to move out of it to find stability)
3–The Rural Sierra country people (which consist of 4.2 million) are on the poor side of the scale, and 2.3 million come under the very poor side. Poverty enhances distress and depression, and consequently comes with it, a higher crime rate to keep up ones bad habits, such as, alcoholism and drug usage, and selling of drugs. The lack of poverty will reduce these figures (it is not to say the rich or well off will not use alcohol or drugs, for on the other hand, affluent and stressful societies seem to bear the same burden, perhaps because of the boredom and spare time available).
4–what we need to do for these Rural Sierra folks is: add Education, societal protection, and help with self-esteem, and the drug and alcohol problem will be reduced.
5–some of the good factors that the Peruvian society has acquired in the past 35-years is that its life expectancy went from 53 years in 1970, to 70-years in 2004. But it is a proven fact, there are no old Alcoholics, they die in their 40s. Along with the life expectancy increases in Peru, alcohol problems increased too, this could have been curtailed with Education had it went side by side with the growing upward on the ladder of life expectancy.

Society’s Alcoholics

Now let’s look at what society is producing, dealing with Dependence (or ripe alcoholics living among the many (meaning; non users). Let me also add before we get into the figures below, in the educational area, recovering alcoholics need to be taught how to live a sober life, or an ongoing recovering life, for the recovering means exactly that, an ongoing sobriety program for him or her. For kids or teenagers they need to be taught how to live a life without alcohol, taught its consequences if the choose it. These figures below represent the whole population of Peru):

Years of Age

12 to 13 years of age 1% of Peru’s children are developing a dependency for alcohol
14 to 16 years of age 3% of Peru’s teenagers are problem drinkers
17 to 19 years of age 11.5% of Peru’s young adults are dependent on alcohol usage
20 to 40 years of age 13.5% of Peru’s adult are chemically dependent
41 to 59 years of age 7. % of Peru’s aging adults are alcoholics
60 to 64 years of age 7. % of Peru’s Elderly are alcoholics (Usually this group becomes alcoholics because of symptoms of aging and being alone, and depression)

Note 1: Suicidal statistics for 2002 (study done in Lima, Peru): 12. 2 % of the populations have thought of suicide, and out of that, 3% have attempted it. So we have a society of 25-million people, and so we have 6.5 million people thinking of killing themselves, and out of that, 195,000-people attempted to kill themselves in 2002, and these are only known figures, I would expect them to triple this amount should the rest of the folks be counted. So I would figure 600,000 minimum tried to kill themselves in 2002.

Note 2: In the Junin region, 2.15% of the elderly belong to adult centers: which is a very small amount, but such centers can occupy the elderly with activities, making their lives sweeter before they pass on, but normally what happens, is when the elderly do not have access, or attend these, they resort to alcohol use, and even at an old age, one can saturate their bodies, to chemically change their internal structures and thus, produce a chemical dependency.

Note 3: In 2002 1120 case of abuse and violence was reported against the elderly, and I believe this is only 10% of the real figure: most of the cases dealt with the female elderly, under the category of sexual violence. Again, drug and alcohol related.

Note 4: Any poor health system I do believe adds to the risk of its citizens in using chemicals for escape purposes. Here are some figures to review on The Health Systems throughout the world: according to the WHO (World Health Organization): out of 191 countries, Peru is number 129, Ecuador is 111, Bolivia is 126, Chile is 33, and Colombia is 22.

Note 5: Lima has 22,000-Physicians, with approximately, 8-million inhabitants; whereas, the Central Region has 7,500-Physicians, with over 12-million inhabitants. Within Junin there are 454 establishments for health care (7 hospitals, 56 Health centers, and 391 Health posts), that may sound like a lot but in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is less than 300,000 people, they have more than 7-hospitals, and an uncountable number of health centers. Lima has 700-establishemnts, and only 8-million inhabitants to service.

Note 6: Many of the women of Peru contribute much of the domestic violence with husbands while under the influence of alcoholism; which produces aggressive behavior, and chronic physical problems.

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