In a small house in the middle of this oil-rich whaling town lives a former bootlegger and drug dealer. He stopped selling illegal booze sometime last summer, yet hopeful buyers still knock at the door all night looking for a jug. “I could have sold 10 bottles last night. People […]
Barrow mayor proposes city-run liquor store
Although alcohol sales are banned in Barrow, thousands of pounds of alcohol legally arrive every month at a city distribution center. That’s because voters elected in 1997 to go “damp,” meaning a limited amount of booze can be shipped to Barrow by holders of city-issued permits approved by the borough police department. Each […]
‘Limitless amounts of money, as long as they’re not caught’
In the northernmost city in the United States, Barrow police say enforcing the local ban on alcohol sales is a top priority for detectives like Det. Sgt. Nick Sundai. Head of investigators for the North Slope Borough Police Department, Sundai said his unit has several unique tools to suppress bootleg booze. Among them: – The […]
‘I think about my past and it hurts me inside’
At about age 14, Thomas Ahtuangaruak, Jr., was confused when someone in Wainwright offered to pay $100 to a family member for juice. “No, not that kind of juice,” the family member explained. T.A., as he is known, walked away with $50 for handing off a bottle of liquor. “That got me started, right there,” […]
‘Acknowledging these things is the only way to heal’
Born and raised in Hoonah, Kyle Wark remembers sitting in the family car as his mother drove him home, drunk and swerving. When they arrived at the house she passed out on the steering wheel, horn blaring, he said. Wark was 29 when she died. Today, he studies alcohol use among Alaska Natives as a […]
‘I’ve got a lot of apologizing to do’
Lecon Chuitt grew up in Tyonek picking raisins out of his parents’ homebrew, he said. He was 8-years-old when his brother, 13, got drunk and killed himself. By the time he was a teenager, Chuitt was binge drinking too. A prison escape and armed robbery spree in his 20s landed him in prison for much […]