Alcohol policy considerations in American Indian communities: an alternative view.

Dr. Philip May has provided an unusual and valuable public service on behalf of the American Indian and Alaska Native populations and of all who are concerned about the impact of alcohol on public health and social welfare. His article on alcohol policy considerations for Indian reservations and bordertown communities in this issue can be a valuable tool. We also should be grateful to this journal for making it available, together with comments by colleagues. As a professional who has conducted both intensive and extensive research on alcohol and Indian people for several years, May is well qualified to evaluate the epidemiological data. As a sociologist whose work has often been cast in terms of practical implications rather than theoretic or conceptual issues, he is skillful at relating those data to a variety of alternative policies. In addition, as a writer who has worked closely with various American Indian groups, he has succeeded at the difficult task of being an effective broker of information; he has offered a broad survey of the diverse and widely scattered literature, digesting the sometimes complex and highly specialized findings, and "translating" them into clear, concise, and usable terms for readers who may not have familiarity with academic or scientific approaches to the subjects of alcohol and Indians. I am in hearty agreement with the greatest portion of Dr. May's article. I admire the way he has touched on so many important points, explained them neatly, and realistically offered "the ingredients for a comprehensive policy," while emphasizing that "each community needs to work out its own recipe." In a very real sense, there is nothing in his article with which I seriously disagree, nothing that I consider incorrect or irrelevant (Heath, 1983, 1987, 1989). In another sense, however, I find it somewhat frustrating. I must confess to having some minor concern about the overall balance of the piece, especially with respect to recommended policies. There were many places in the paper where I wanted to say, "Yes, but ..." It could even be said that Dr. May and I would list the same ingredients in an article, although perhaps in slightly different order. It is not that we