With a population of about 6,500 Bethel, Alaska, is the 9^th largest city in Alaska. It is also is the largest “damp” city in Alaska, or at least it was until October.

Alaska has a range of alcohol laws at the local level — from “wet,” which allows the sale and drinking of alcohol, to “damp,” which prohibits the sale but allows the possession, to “dry,” which forbids both sale and possession.

Bethel has been “damp” since 1977. If you want alcohol, it has to be flown in from Anchorage. It takes a day or so after the order for it to arrive. A local pilot who claims to supply 70% of Bethel’s legal alcohol called it Bethel’s equivalent to a “cooling off” period for handguns. Only in this case it is booze.

Police estimate that 90% of the crimes are alcohol related.

That is not surprising when you live in a town in the middle of rural Alaska. Drugs and alcohol are a major form of entertainment, legal or not.

Like prohibition everywhere, banning liquor has failed miserably in Bethel. Five or six people in this town make a good living as bootleggers. The price for a bottle can be as high as $200, depending on how quickly someone wants it.

Mouthwash and air freshener are kept behind the counter at grocery stores because people will use them for the alcohol. In a bizarre trick to get alcohol, air freshener is sprayed on bread and what drips through is drunk.

Recently, the state decided to investigate how much alcohol was being flown into rural communities. It required a log on how much was being ordered by residents and filed it away into a database. When it saw the totals, the state ordered the shipments cut in half. That was an impetus for last year’s vote.

By a 615-523 vote, the town decided to go “wet.”

However, the town leaders decided they did not know what that meant. Were the residents merely expressing their disapproval with state paperwork and alcohol restrictions? Or were they giving the okay to approve liquor stores and the sale of alcohol at restaurants?

On January 19, the residents will again cast ballots on an advisory vote to help the city draft new liquor laws.

Then in the spring, the residents get to vote one more time on alcohol sales. A group of anti-alcohol community activists put on the ballot an initiative to repeal the October vote making Bethel “wet.” They received more petition signatures to place the question on the ballot, 544, than those who voted to keep the ban on alcohol sales in October, 523.

Now that Bethel is “wet” not much has changed. People can order more alcohol but alcohol-related crimes and emergency room visits have leveled off to pre-October levels. Bootlegged prices have plummeted to half, however. Some have noted that with alcohol prices slashed, those with the worst drinking problems have more money for food and clothes instead of lining the bootleggers’ pockets.

Because those who voted for lifting the ban in October seem genuinely divided, the January advisory vote is likely to be interesting. Yet come spring everything may be overturned as Bethel returns to “damp” status. One can bet that the pro-alcohol side will respond with its own petition after that, but state law requires that they will have to wait for two years.

Then they can start the election cycle again.