Alaska residents are paid to live here. Right now, in a week or so, that is getting paid out and each resident adult gets $1800 and I think it is $500 per kid. My boyfriend does not get it this year because of the time he spent in Texas. He came back to Alaska a couple months after the application deadline. Anyways, I keep getting told by many people that it is going to be like the wild west here for a couple of weeks once people have money. There will be too much homebrew. I have heard from numerous people that the parents will fly to Anchorage for whatever reason, and just tell their kids to find someone to stay with. So the kids get very worked up and stressed and have an unstable home life for weeks, more so than usual. This leads to them acting out and being angry. It is very sad that money gets abused like that and that parents could just abandon their kids for a couple weeks and not care what happens to them. I know many kids are angry over homebrew, even though many might be drinking themselves in a few years. I read some writings kids did about how to make the village a better place and many wrote "get rid of the homebew and the drugs". I have never seen either but it is here.
Chewing tobacco - another huge issue. 8 out of 12 7th graders yesterday said that they use chewing tobacco. Parents will give their elementary school kids a pinch of tobacco in the morning to keep them awake. This is awful and disgusting. I was told people chew because it is cheaper, but there is no reason to be giving little kids tobacco!