Superjuice Causing Problems for Youths in Winnipeg
Some of the young people who live on the remote Manitoba First Nation in Winnipeg have been taken ill and required hospitalisation after drinking a concoction of a home-brewed drink named ‘superjuice’.
The ‘moonshine’ juice can be easily purchased in two litre bottles at a cost of between $80 and $100 and the potent alcohol is having a devasting impact on many of the youths..
Superjuice is created using packets of high potency yeast that when mixed with water and sugar and placed into pails it is ready for drinking after fermenting in as little as just a few days.
Bobby Monias, the regional youth adviser for Assembly for Manitoba Chiefs and who works with youths in the Idland Lake area told the ‘Round Table on Native Youth Issues’ "I'm not going to deny anything, because I've had my share of problems with superjuice. It's pretty strong.
He later spoke with the CBC News and said "There's been a high rate of violence involving superjuice with young people of the four Island Lake communities, so we're just trying to make a change to stop the flow of superjuice," he said.
Alcohol Free Community
No alcohol is allowed within the the four First Nations communities in the Island Lake area, and with the easy access to this powerful alcoholic drink superjuice has become the drink of choice.
Rationing of the yeast and limiting access to it could well control the production of the ‘homebrewed’ juice is the thoughts behind the elders of the community. This would be a matter for Health Canada to take control of.
Attorney General Dave Chomiak, Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and Eric Robinson, minister of culture, heritage, tourism and sport — were very concerned to learn about problems with superjuice according to a governmenet spokeperson and plans for the three men to meet up in the future in the hope that they can come up with ideas on how to deal with this alcoholic problem amongs the youths.
Moonshine Beginnings
The word ‘Moonshine’ derives from an old English term for smuggled liquor that was moved about during the evening with only the light of the moon to help guide the illegal traders.
Today, in some of the world’s poorer countries, moonshine is widely available. Bad batches of the drink can cause blindness, paralysis, tics, hair loss, alopecia, erectile dysfunction, SARS, and sometime as well as one or two case of death.
It’s also not unknown in some foreign countries for horror stories to emerge about dealers using highly toxic ingredients such as car battery acid and hate to say it human faeces to speed along the fermentation process!
The illnesses and symptoms that Superjuice has produced is not at this time known and maybe its best we never do know, but right now my batch of homebrew made by my own fair hands sounds like nectar!