Tribe Sued Beer Stores for Excessive Alcoholism
Believe it or not, a group of people sued beer makers because of causing health problems in their place.
Yes, this is true. It happened recently in South Dakota, the American Indian tribe “Oglala Sioux” demanded the beverages company an amount of $500 million. This is because of the damages they created such as teenagers being rehabilitated because of chronic alcoholism.
They filed the lawsuit in the US district Court of Nebraska; 4 beer stores in Whiteclay have been sued. According to the tribe’s record, the said stores had sold 5 million cans of beer in 2010 when the reality is there are only 12 residents there!
There had been many cases of chronic alcohol abuse in the area and the tribe leaders blame the said trades. There are also cases of bootlegging.
Bootlegging has been the problem of various states since the 30s (when public enemies like Al Capone led the beer illegal smuggling). Now, it’s happening again in this unpopulated area of South Dakota. There are actually beer limitations in Nebraska but the tribe found out this illegal transactions. They figured out that beer companies and stores are selling beers far in excess of the allowed amount written in their law.
Alcoholism has been a long-standing problem of this reservation since the early 19th century. This is ironic because they have actually banned alcohol in 1832. A success in legalizing it in 1970 was short-lived since it was banned again after just a couple of months.
For some, this lawsuit may sound absurd, but for this tribe it is the final solution they could think of to finally address this issue. To prove the gravity of the problem, they have also cited in their submitted file the records of children being born suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome. Also, they included the survey of how long the life expectancy in that area. According to their record, it is believed that most people there only last for around 45 and 52 years only because of the said deadly excessiveness.
In consolation to the tribe, the Nebraska lawmakers had been curving legislation for years to stop this excessive alcoholism.
Reference:
Associated Press (2012). Tribe Suing Beer Companies for Alcohol Problems. Retrieved on February 9, 2012, from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/09/tribe-suing-beer-companies-for-alcohol-problems/?test=latestnews
Image Sources:
Coors by Eddie~S, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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