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Comment by bloaf | Hacker News Reader

> Indigenous people and advocates have long warned restrictions and bans are not the solution, urging action on addressing drivers of harm such as... family violence.

The bans reduced domestic violence calls by 37%. It sounds like the advocates don't want to appear paternalistic, and that led to them opposing measures that actually help a lot.

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Maybe, but it's not as though that sentiment comes out of nowhere. If we compare the general consensus on the success of Prohibition vs, say, the campaign against drunk driving in the 80s and 90s, it's easy to feel quite cautious about the wisdom of bans in the area of substance addiction/abuse. Of course, the circumstances and environment are quite different in this case than Prohibition, so there's still plenty of unknowns, but still.

Related to the fact that I initially wrote, then deleted, then wrote a milder form of a pre-apology for voicing helpful experience in a thread about a reduction in domestic violence.

I have seen a lot of indigenous advocates and leaders actually being in favor of prohibition. They sometimes see outsiders parking their alcohol businesses right outside the limits of the (dry?) reservation as exploitive, colonialist capitalism.

There are other drivers behind domestic violence, some of which compound with alcohol as people use alcohol as a sort of self treatment - mostly unemployment, low-wage environment, high-stress work environments and a lack of access to mental health care. These three can be fixed or at least be controlled by decent minimum wage laws, workplace safety/worker protection regulation, and by investing into mental health care.

Another big part, particularly in rural/conservative areas or in young people scooping up the propaganda of Andrew Tate and his ilk by the mouthful, are toxic masculinity ideals... but honestly I don't have an idea how to fight that kind of ideology other than getting the mouthpieces deplatformed and arrested.

This was in Australia, which already has universal health care and a minimum wage of $23.23 (AUD).

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