Curriculum Vitae

James M. Schaefer, Ph.D.

Professor and Consultant

Interest in normal and abusive alcohol behaviors in bars, parties and other cultural settings; also normative and compulsive gambling behaviors in bars, casinos, and other settings with youth and adult populations. Study physiological and cultural interactions of intoxicants: alcohol metabolism, violence, death, security, service, & prevention of contrary indications. Regional resource on heritage concerning rails, trails, valleys and mountains; prehistoric to present.

Business Address:

39 Schermerhorn Road,

Schenectady, NY 12306-9801

518/393-8978 vm/fax 518/251-3935

Awards and Honors (20)

1995 Commissioner, Appointed by Schenectady County Legislature to the Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor Planning Commission (1995-1997). March 1990 Recipient of the Wendell Hunt Award for "pioneering work in the field of responsible beverage research, program development and service." From the Responsible Beverage Service Council, Dallas, Texas. April 1989 Certificate of Recognition The City of Minneapolis award for outstanding volunteer service regarding alcohol and other drug abuse prevention. April 1987 Nominated for Irene Hixon Whitney Award for Chemical Dependency & Human Service Leadership. June 1986 Recipient of a Medal of Appreciation for corporate alcohol and drug policy seminar.

Minnesota Association of Commerce and Industry, St. Paul, MN. February 1985 Certificate of Appreciation. The Hermione W. Alexander Fund Committee to Combat Drugged and Drunk Driving, Oslo, Norway. May 1985 Recognition for Outstanding Service, Hennepin Technical Centers Intermediate School District School Board (1981-84).

1984 Nominated "Outstanding Citizen in Plymouth." Plymouth, MN Women's Jaycees.

1984 Certificate of Recognition by Minnesota Chemical Health Association for "Significant contributions to the prevention of alcohol problems through innovative research on public drinking behavior."

1984 Co-recipient of 1984 "Friend of Industry" Award Minnesota License Beverage Assoc./ Municipal Liquor Store Association.

1983 "Markies" Two national communications and marketing awards for public service announcements. National Council on Alcoholism Houston, TX.

1981 Invited Lecturer Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University, Peoples Republic of China, June.

1980 Omicron Delta Kappa. Minnesota Circle. University Service Honorary.

1975-76 NIAAA Postdoctoral Biomedical Fellowship. Center for Alcohol Studies. School of Medicine. University of North Carolina.

1974-75 Senior Fulbright Visiting Lectureship to India. Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India.

1973 Oral Defense of Doctoral Dissertation with Distinction. SUNY at Buffalo, NY.

1973 Sigma Xi. Full Membership. National Scientific Honorary.

1969 SUNY at Buffalo Graduate School Fellowship

Research and Development Projects (17)

1996 Comparative evaluation of the efficacy of hangover ameliorating compounds in a double-blind study with placebo. M.P.M. Holdings, BRD & Lifestyles Marketing, Inc. Germany and Minnesota. Awarded 9/3/96-12/1/96 ($8,121)

1995 National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Comparing Two Legislative Approaches to Server Education. Awarded to Jack Dresser, Integrated Research Services, Inc. Eugene, OR. ($850,893; 1995-2000) JMS position Field Research Supervisor for study in Washington, Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, South Carolina and Alabama.

1994 National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Alcohol & hunting accidents:

A national survey. Submitted with Jack Dresser, Integrated Research Services, Inc. Eugene, OR ($100,000)

1993 Bureau of Navy Personnel (MWR Division) Arlington, VA Alcohol Intervention

Training Proposal to certify Navy Club bar staff nation-wide 1993-1996. Submitted with Robert Pomplun of Loss Control Services, Inc. ($400,349)

1992 Minnesota Community Gambling Impact Study for Brainerd and Wilmar, MN. Minnesota Department of Human Services. Contract Awarded to James M. Schaefer, Ph.D., Inc. February, 1992. ($25,000)

1991 Evaluation of Ride Service Programs. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Department of Transportation. Co-PI with Martin Molof, Ph.D., PI, Integrated Research Services, Inc., Eugene, OR (Awarded 1991 for $160,000)

1990b Gambling Studies: Adult and Youth Survey; Bar Study of Pull Tabs. MN Dept. of Human Services. (with Profs. Laundergan, Pirie, Winters, Aasved) (Awarded 1990 for $106,000)

1990a Field Evaluation of Early Behavioral Signs of Intoxication. NHTSA Subcontract with NSPRI, Landover Maryland. PI James McKnight. (Awarded 1990 for $126,000)

1988 Phase II Community Outreach Project on IV Drug Use and AIDS. (Richard Needle, P.I.; James M. Schaefer, Co-Investigator (Awarded 1989 for $2,461,920)

1989 Biological markers for Alcohol consumption. (John Belcher, P.I.; James M. Schaefer, Co-P.I. and others) (Awarded 1989 for $745,668)

1985-87 Self-regulation of Alcohol Abuse Among Tavern Patrons. (Richard SykesPrincipal Investigator) (Awarded 1985 for $341,000)

1985-91 Product Development, research and patent preparation. 21st Century Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Alcosorb tm for hangover amelioration) (US Patent Awarded 1987)

1982 Grand Rapids Drinking and Driving Project. Blandin Foundation, Grand Rapids, MN (Awarded 1982, $35,000)

1977 Alcohol metabolism and physiological patterns among American Indians in Montana.

Alcoholism Research Authority of North Carolina (Awarded 1977 for $6,300).

Books (2)

1974 Studies in Cultural Diffusion: Galton's Problem. Editor New Haven, HRAF Press. W6-002 ($11.50) 279 pp.

1973 A Hologeistic Study of Family Structure and Sentiment, Supernatural Beliefs and Drunkenness. SUNY at Buffalo Microfilm and Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Microfilms, 389 pp. (Dissertation Abstracts Index Vol. 34, No. 6: 72-29, 131).

Chapters in Books (12)

1991 Effects of Group Participation on Drinking Behaviors in Public Bars: An Observational Survey. In Replication Research in the Social Sciences, James W. Neuliep (Ed.) (with R. Sykes and R. Rowley) pp. 373-390.

1990 Foreword to Recovery at Work: A Clean and Sober Career Guide, Carol Cox Smith, Hazelden Press, Center City, MN.

1985 The Physical Setting: Behavior and Policy. In Public Drinking and Public Policy.

Eric Single (Ed.) Addictions Research Foundation, Toronto. pp. 85-89.

1982b Campus Unionization Issues and the Employee Assistance Program: The EAP Consultant Perspective. In Revitalization Issues in Academia: Creative Use of EAP's.

Elizabeth P. Hosokawa, Judy Johnston and Richard W. Thoreson (Eds.). University of Missouri-Columbia and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. pp. 49-60.

1982a Rural Prevention: The Mirror Model. In Opportunities for Prevention in Treatment Agencies and Settings. Ian Newman (Ed.) Nebraska Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. pp. 26-31.

1981b Firewater Myths Revisited: Review of Findings and Some New Directions. In Cultural Factors in Alcohol Research and Treatment of Drinking Problems. D.B. Heath, J.O. Waddell, and M.D. Topper (Eds.) Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 9, pp. 99-118.

1981a An Overview of the Ethnic and Racial Variations for Alcohol Use and Abuse. In Alcohol and Health IV: A Report to Congress: Research Papers, Vol. 4. NIAAA. Washington, D.C., pp 293-311.

1979b Ethnic Differences in Response to Alcohol. In Psychiatric Factors in Drug Abuse. R.W. Pickens and L.L. Heston (Eds.). New York: Grune and Stratton.

1979a Firewater Myths Revisited: What Have We Learned and What Are Some New Directions in This Field? In Cultural Anthropology and Treatment for Alcoholism. D.B. Heath, J.O. Waddell, and M. Topper (Eds.). Washington, Smithsonian Inst.

1976 Drunkenness and Culture Stress: A Holocultural Test. In Cross-Cultural Approaches to the Study of Alcohol: An Inter-disciplinary Perspective. M. W. Everett, J.O. Waddell, and D.B. Heath (Eds.) World Anthropology Series.The Hague: Mouton Press, pp. 289-321.

1976 A Review of Methods in Holocultural Studies in Mental Health/Illness In World Anthropology: Anthropology and Mental Health. J. Westermeyer (Ed.) The Hague: Mouton Press, pp. 219-236.

1974 Galton's Problem in a Holocultural Study on Drunkenness. In Studies n Cultural Studies in Cultural Diffusion: Galton's Problem. J.M. Schaefer (Ed.) New Haven: HRAF Press, pp. 113-142.

Scientific Journal Articles (Selected Listing, Total 30)

1995a "Minnesota Slots": an Observational Study of Pull Tab Gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies Vol. 11(3) 311-341. (with M. Aasved).

1995b Legalized Gambling and Its Impacts in a Central Minnesota Vacation Community: A Case Study. Journal of Gambling Studies Vol. 11(2) 137-163. (with M.Aasved and K. Merila).

1994a Assessment of Year-Round and Holiday Ride Service Programs. U.S. Department of Transportation. (with Molof et. al)

1994b Adult Survey of Minnesota Problem Gambling Behavior: A Needs Assessment: Changes 1990 to 1994. Final Report Center for Addiction Studies, Duluth, MN. (with M.O. Emerson and J. Clark Laundergan).

1993 The Influence of Time, Gender and Group Size on Heavy Drinking in Public Bars.  Journal of Studies on Alcohol Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 133-138 (with R. Sykes and R. Rowley).

1992b Deal Me In! Gambling Impacts in a Northern Minnesota Resort Community. Final Report (with M. Aasved), Department of Human Services, St. Paul, Minnesota, pgs 111.

1992a Who Needs Las Vegas? Gambling Impacts in a Western Minnesota Agricultural Community. Final Report (with M. Aasved, Ph.D.) Department of Human Services, Pgs 77.

1990c Slam Bam Intoxicated Man: An Observational Study of the Management of Intoxicated Patron Behavior in Minnesota Bars. Final Report (with M. Aasved)

1990b "Minnesota Slots" An Observational Study of Pull Tab Gambling. Final Report for Department of Human Services, Mental Health Division. (with M. Aasved) 124 pgs.

1990a Preliminary Results of Field Validation of the Guide to Early Signs of Intoxication. (J. McKnight and M. Aasved) NHTSA Contract Report.

1987b On the Effects of Consuming "Non-Alcoholic" or "De-Alcoholized" Beverages and Health Risks. Alcohol: The International Journal Vol. 4: 87-95.

1987a The Social Context of Alcohol Abuse in the Public Bar. (with R. Sykes and R. Rowley). Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 210.

1982 Information Dissemination and Information Overload in the Alcoholism Treatment Field. (with D. Levinson, R. Sylvester, J.A. Meland, and B. Haugen). Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 43, No. 5: 570-75.

1979 The Temp of Country Music and the Rate of Drinking in Bars. (with graduate student P. Bach). Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 40, No. 11: 1058-59.

1978 Alcohol Metabolism and Sensitivity Reactions Among the Reddis of South India. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Vol. 2, No. 1: 61-69.

1976a New Paleolithic Sites in South India. Journal of Field Archeology, Vol. 3, pp. 469-70.

1974 Drunkenness and Culture Stress: A Holocultural Test. Transcultural Psychiatric Review. October.

1971 Creativity: A Cross-Historical Pilot Survey. (with Naroll, et al.) Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, Vol. 2, No. 2: 181-9.

1969 Comparison of Three Measures of Social Complexity. American Anthropologist, Vol. 71, No. 4: 706-708.

Membership in Professional Societies (Selected Listing, Total 16)

Fellow American Anthropological Association

Fellow Society for Applied Anthropology

Past Chairman Responsible Beverage Service Council

Science Advisory Board American Council on Alcoholism

Member Council on Alcohol Policy

Member American Public Health Association Alcohol Section

Member Society for Medical Anthropology

Member Research Society on Alcoholism

Member American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science

Member Society for Cross Cultural Research

Anthropological, Historic & Behavioral Fieldwork

Present Study of Mohawk Valley Heritage, tourism and Native American art, legalized gambling behaviors in New York quick Draw and casino gambling.

Historic and photographic records of 1930s Adirondack development of skiing (lectured and provided photographic show on 60th anniversary of "snow trains"to North Creek, NY). Incentives and disincentives in preventing DWI.

1993 Study of Low Income residents of Southwestern Minnesota on rates of compulsive gambling.

1993 Bar research interviewing owners and managers and patrons exiting bars late at night about transportation and security/safety related decisions.

1992 Gambling impact research in communities of Brainerd and Willmar, MN; Grand Casino, Mille Lacs, MN; Jackpot Junction Casino, Morton, MN; Mystic Lake & Little Six Casino, Shakopee, MN.

1976-1991 Bar patron studies on intoxication/gambling.

1981 Peoples Republic of China (during invited lecture series) Investigated bar violence and public dating patterns, Shanghai, Hangchow, Canton & Beijing.

1975 Alcohol sensitivity study of mountain folks of rural North Carolina and college student volunteers. Biomedical and cultural data.

1974-75 India (during a year of a Fulbright Lectureship) Lived in Triupati, a temple town in southern Andra Pradesh among Telugu speakers. Eight months. Conducted alcohol metabolism tests on Reddi and Chencu volunteer subjects. Visited Forest Chencu, a hunter-gatherer-laborer tribal group in central Andra Pradesh. Also visited Toda (Nilgiri Hills); Bhils (Rajasthan); Nayars (Kerala).

Omni Magazine Interview

The Indiana Jones of the tavern scene, this anthropologist studies the American drinker like a lost tribe of the Amazon. In documenting the rituals of the bar, he's discovered how and why we booze it up the way we do.

Interview by A.J.S. Rayl - James Schaefer

Omni - December 1989 - Vol. 12 No. 3 - page 106-132

The rain drizzles down on the car windows as Jim Schaefer pulls off the main road and into a packed parking lot. "Most anthropologists spend a lifetime trying to find a tribe that will accept them," Schaefer says as we approach a building pulsing with light and music. Nailed to the door is a big sign that reads: Anyone who is not of legal age will be arrested on the spot and escorted from the premises. "But my tribe," he continues, "is here and now. And they accept me." Schaefer is an anthropologist whose tribe is American drinkers. Associate professor and director of the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, he has spent almost 20 years studying American drinkers, the bars they patronize, and the role of alcohol in society.

We enter the Hoggsbreath, a bar on the outskirts of St. Paul. Clearly this is Schaefer's territory. Like some kind of Indiana Jones of the tavern scene, he swashbuckles a path through the mass of humanity to the watering hole and orders drinks. The Hoggsbreath is a theme bar and thus features a different sort of ambiance every night. Monday nights the theme is country and western, and that means there'll be a tight jeans contest, complete with free shots for the contestants, and all the bumping and grinding it takes to win. "And things," Schaefer warned earlier, "can get down and dirty."

"Hey, there's the professor!" shouts the bar's cowboy DJ. "And he says if you listen to slow country music you're gonna drink more. Whaddya thinka that?" The tribe responds with boos and hisses. Then these urban cowboys break into a chant: "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!

Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1942, Schaefer is the son of a General Electric scientist who discovered the principle of cloud seeding. As a young child Schaefer showed an interest in anthropology, archaeology, and hunting for arrowheads and other buried relics in upstate New York. The West always held an allure, and in 1960 Schaefer enrolled in the University of Montana as a forestry major. But with most of his time spent in Missoula's heavy party scene at the local bars, he was on the verge of flunking out. To pick up his grade point average, he was advised to go into anthropology, a subject that had a reputation for being easy at Montana. In those courses Schaefer found direction, however, unintentionally. He earned a degree in anthropology in 1966 and "made it into graduate school" at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

When Schaefer couldn't come up with a topic for his doctoral thesis, his adviser asked what it was that Schaefer felt he knew a lot about. In a moment of unadulterated honesty, he replied, "Drinking." His life's work began that day. Schaefer completed his dissertation, a cross-cultural study of family structures, supernatural belief systems, and drunkenness in 57 tribal societies worldwide. In 1973 he earned his Ph.D. with distinction.

Schaefer returned to the University of Montana as an assistant professor. And with newfound awareness and self-control, he returned to the Missoula bar scene - this time to study the whys and wherefores. He also spent a year as the Fulbright Visiting Lecturer at Sri Venkateswara University in India and a year as a National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Research Fellow at the Center for Alcohol Studies of the University of North Carolina. But mainly, during the next decade Schaefer, along with research assistants and students, hung out at local bars, investigating patron behavior and environmental influences. Conducting their research in an unobtrusive, participant-observation style. Schaefer and colleagues discovered that the jukebox served as a mood-selection device. He realized further that by studying the impact of music, decor, lighting and other factors on customers, he could draw up an environmental-risk profile with regard to overindulgence for almost any bar.

And on this particular night at the Hoggsbreath? "It's definitely high-risk," Schaefer says. "The bar is crowded. The dance floor is crowded. People can't really move. They'll get frustrated and start drinking more. And check out the lighting. It's what I call twilight lighting: It's light enough to see but dark enough to cover the faults."

In 1978 Schaefer moved to Minneapolis, to the University of Minnesota, where he has since taken part in several research and development projects. In 1979 he and University of Montana graduate student Paul Bach published a paper on slow country music and drinking. It put Schaefer on the map in many circles, both scientific and lay. In 1985 he was enlisted as a coproject investigator with sociologist Richard Sykes, also of the University of Minnesota, for a long-term study on self-regulation of alcohol abuse among tavern patrons in the Midwest. He is currently participating in an investigation of biological markers for alcohol consumption and a study of environmental influences on gambling and drinking.

Alcohol remains the United States' number one recreational drug. Schaefer has crossed detached scientific lines and become something of an activist in community education, outreach, and intervention programs geared toward reducing alcohol abuse. In 1982 he organized Anthropologists Concerned for Anthropologists, a support group for those professionals struggling with alcohol and drug abuse. The same year he was awarded a grant to head the Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Drinking and Driving Project. It gained nationwide attention when Schaefer replanted old Burma Shave signs along Minnesota highways (It's best for/one who hits/the bottle/to let another/use the throttle) And in 1988 he was appointed to the Science Advisory Board of the American Council on Alcoholism.

Schaefer is frequently hired as an expert witness for both plaintiffs and defendants in drunk driving cases. He has served as a consultant to major law firms around the country and to the Federal Trade Commission on product liability and fraudulent advertising practices.

Schaefer is also an entrepreneur of sorts. In recent years he has helped design bars and has lent his expertise to the development of Alcosorb, an anti-intoxicant and hangover remedy, for 21st Century Pharmaceuticals.

A.J.S. Rayl spent an extended weekend with Schaefer, barhopping throughout the Twin Cities - from cowboy night at the Hoggsbreath to the upscale Rupert's to small neighborhood bars.

OMNI: How did your bar research begin?

SCHAEFER: I took a job at the University of Montana and while visiting some of the old places ten years after, I thought about applying ideas I'd gleaned from theoretical work. What could I observe in an actual place where people drank? I started hanging out all over again, only this time as an anthropologist.

Sammy Thompson, owner of the Trial's End in Missoula, was by far the best bartender I'd ever seen. A maestro, he orchestrated the scene. One day, about five P.M., the jukebox ran out of plays and suddenly I saw the place die. While people weren't verbalizing it, their eyes were saying, "What's wrong here?" Sammy picked up on it right away and brought out this bean game, a long-necked jug with maybe fifteen beans in it, one of which was red. The one who winds up with the red bean loses and forks out the money to play the jukebox.

As the guy with the red bean headed toward the jukebox, regulars started shouting out the songs people wanted to hear. I suddenly realized that here was a microcosm of bar culture and that the jukebox was a mood-selection device. That was really neat - something I could systematically investigate. My graduate student Paul Bach came up with an ingenious way to measure the relationship between mood, music, environment, and drinking. We'd put a tape recorder on the table in front of the jukebox and tape the ten- to twelve-o'clock set of songs in consecutive friday nights. We observed patrons drinking in different areas of the bar. We'd also tap our table with a pen or glass every time someone in our sample areas sipped a drink.

Back at the office, Paul converted the music into beats per minute and correlated it with the number of sips per minute. We assumed that as the tempo went up, the drinking would, too, but it didn't turn out that way. Slower songs went with faster sipping.

Next we looked at lyric content and tried to figure out whether country-western (CW) songs tended to portray images of self-controlling the world - internal locus of control - or external. Slower songs tended to be sad - "your lyin' cheatin' heart" or "cryin' in the beer" type songs. Country music is not like the "I Want Your Sex" stuff of modern rock and roll. Country is more of a working-class blues - 'I'm sufferin' and hurtin' since you been gone' variety. It's the stuff of the work-hard, play-hard folks who are the hard core of this country, whether they live in Detroit, Los Angeles, or the Rocky Mountain west. I don't know if you need to put warning labels on CW songs, but the surgeon general might be interested!

OMNI: Have you gone into a bar and challenged the norms, say punched numbers for certain kinds of songs on the jukebox at the wrong time?

SCHAEFER: Yeah, and do they give you stares! There is a recognition of normative sounds in a bar, and when that norm is being broken or challenged, people will leave or let their preferences be known. At the Trail's End, we did things like playing a sequence of slow songs and took a baseline count of the number of times the cash register rang at twenty-minute intervals. I did that a couple of times, and once the sales quadrupled.

OMNI: You also began to establish a risk profile with regard to overdrinking. What did you find?

SCHAEFER: There's a greater likelihood in a "high-risk" environment. For instance, moderately lit bars with a twilight kind of darkness-bright enough for effective cruising, but dark enough to cover up faults-are high-risk.

Heavy drinking also occurs when the ratio of men to women is high, like five to one. The men get very frustrated because they have a limited capacity for expressing themselves. There's also a premium on being able to get to a table and, you know, "cut out a heifer" - take her out to the dance floor and she's yours. A small, crowded dance floor is high-risk. You can't do your thing. You're bumping into people, so you tend to drink more. I've looked at the artwork, too. High risk bars often show images of action; In a cowboy bar you'll see a picture of a cowboy bustin' a bull. Or, in other bars, sports pictures; Somebody is about to make a touchdown or is skiing off a cliff. This can be an affirmation of risky or highly competitive behavior and tends to encourage a bragging, storytelling bravado, and there's more drinking.

OMNI: What about low risk drinking environments?

SCHAEFER: Bright and very dark bars are relatively low risk. Casino bars, in particular, are on the bright side because the premium is not on drinking but gambling. Darker bars tend to be more of a romantic setting for couples or lonesome singles. In yuppie bars, where you dress up and eat food, there's a premium on not spilling, not getting messy, and that sets a certain decorum for the group. If there's a big dance floor and lots of space to move around, then there's a premium on struttin' your stuff. You're out there swinging, gliding, or stomping or you're Cotton-Eyed Joe. In bars where there's moderate drinking, I found landscape artwork or just wallpaper. And there are family-type bars, usually restaurants with a section where the kids play video games and the women can eat and socialize. These tend to be low-risk because the premium isn't on drinking. These places aren't real common in the United States.

OMNI: How does behavior differ in certain types of bars?

SCHAEFER: Observation - not testing - tells me the drinking in the rock scene - disco, rock, or live-band pop - is more controlled. A slightly different game's being played. In the country-western bar there's more male acting out and rowdy behavior. "Let's get drunk and be somebody." In the rock and pop scenes there's a premium on meeting someone, impressing them with your good taste in drink, clothing, and maybe dancing.

OMNI: What about the Cheers kind of bars, the neighborhood bars?

SCHAEFER: If we are talking about reinforcing a core value system, a shared system of values that is anchored in a community, then Cheers bars act as places where everybody knows your name, there's a place for you to be someone, and they know what you drink. It's a home away from home that provides you with the security of peer group protection. If Norm has a drinking problem, someone will see him about it. If Sam Malone is a teetotaler, they respect it. They'll joke about his fake male prowess lack of intellect, but they don't joke about his drinking. It might be interesting to see some real intoxication on Cheers, see them cut somebody off and perhaps go through treatment. There are possibilities on that show that aren't being explored.

OMNI: According to your studies, how often do people who go to bars actually become intoxicated?

SCHAEFER: The bad news is that more than fifty percent of the people in a bar at a given time in the area we sampled were intoxicated, twelve percent seriously. By intoxication we mean drinking at a rate of three or more drinks an hour and actually consuming three or more drinks an hour. If you drink at that rate for two hours, you're well over the legal limit (.10 milligram) for blood alcohol.

Surprisingly, Richard Syke's study showed that the vast majority of bar staff are pretty darn accurate in gauging just how intoxicated their patrons are. Our objective observers' estimates of slightly and seriously intoxicated patrons almost perfectly matched the perceptions of the bartenders and cocktail waitresses interviewed. We originally thought that they would substantially underestimate the number of intoxicated people.

But while bartenders are accurate, they frequently are overserving. In most jurisdictions, overserving is against the law, though it's a law that's not enforced. The Feds aren't out there trying to monitor that, but overserving makes for drunk driving and is the stuff of alcohol abuse.

OMNI: Have you found regional differences in drinking patterns?

SCHAEFER: Lots. The Southeast generally has very low consumption rates, yet every third generation has serious drinking problems. There is strict adherence to the Bible, and Fundamentalists often teach that one must abstain entirely from alcohol. This is overdone in many households, and as a result, the next generation reject the values and become alcohol abusers. Yet the societal effects (job impairment, drunk driving, familial breakup, and so forth) of problem drinking in the Southeast are the lowest in the country.

The vast middle of the United States tends to be the beer consuming part of the country. In the upper Midwest we have moderate drinking, and that part of the country is also right in the middle in terms of social problems related to drinking. New York City and Washington, DC, are extremely heavy drinking areas. Texas, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington - wine states - show heavy drinking and high rates of alcohol abuse. And the indexes of alcohol problems in the New England states are very high. It's thought that where wine is inexpensive, there's a pump priming effect: Wine consumption leads to consumption of spirits and beer.

OMNI: What about gender differences?

SCHAEFER: Men drink more than women. That hasn't changed. Older men drink earlier in the day. Women drink about half as much as men and tend to drink later in the day, as well as later in the week. Perhaps women feel that later is safer because more people are around. If a lady were to go into a bar alone early in the week, she might be perceived as not meeting the cultural norm. Now Tuesday night is ladies' night, and that's a widespread phenomenon. Women do come out, at least for the first shift, to drink the free champagne. Usually they leave then, unless they meet someone who's worth staying around for. There's still a stigma against a woman being intoxicated in public. Women pay attention to making sure they don't show signs of it.

OMNI: But certainly you've seen women who've had a little too much, and men responding to it with a sort of endeared amusement?

SCHAEFER: You mean when they become foul-mouthed, telling jokes, and being more like a guy? Sure, but when it goes beyond the cultural norms, then she becomes the subject of exploitation. There are a good number of predators looking for women who've had a little too much. They follow an agenda of buying her a good stiff drink to make sure she's over the edge, presumably not caring what happens to her. It works differently in other parts of the world. When I was in India, it was taboo for a woman to drink in public, but alcohol is available everywhere. I saw partying college women who would go up to men and feign drunkenness, feign passing out, so they could have sex. The women wanted it, so they played the same game the other way around.

OMNI: Are there racial differences in drinking patterns?

SCHAEFER: You'd find about the same rate of alcoholism among whites, blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, and Chicanos. There is, however, more excessive drinking among American Indians than any other group. Their unique tribal traditions have now become essentially welfare state traditions, a culture of poverty. There are some proudly held core traditions, but the majority are losing that core value system. There's tragedy on every reservation. There's no history of moderate drinking among Native Americans, although there's now an attempt to increase a culture of sobriety. Biological or genetic factors may also play against them with regard to metabolizing alcohol.

Some evidence suggests that genetic factors play a role for Orientals as well. But the consequences differ from those for the Native Americans. The vast majority of Japanese and Chinese people have an enzyme system that is slow to break down acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of alcohol, which is probably more intoxicating and damaging to the system than ethanol. This enzyme defect translates to a flushing response, dizziness, pounding of the heart, sweating, and general dysphoria. This unpleasantness may be protective against alcohol abuse. The abuse problem is at a low percentage in first generation Orientals.

OMNI: Is the same metabolic factor present in the American Indian?

SCHAEFER: Possibly. American Indians are part of the Asiatic gene pool. Although, having migrated millennia ago, they must be considered very diluted Asians. There is a strong theoretical argument, supported by animal studies, that if one persists in drinking heavily in the face of this enzyme defect, that person will quickly become addicted to alcohol. It may be that persistent heavy drinking under those circumstances causes a biological adaptation similar to tolerance buildup in normal people - only much faster. Lab rats with this deficiency that are exposed to alcohol quickly develop another enzyme, THP (tetrahydropapaveraline), a by product of acetaldehyde. THP seems to enhance the animals' craving for ethanol, and they go after it until they convulse or die. It may be that due to the extreme stress caused by their cultural disenfranchisement, the American Indians continue to drink in spite of the protection conferred by the enzyme defect. So this devastating mechanism of addiction has taken hold.

OMNI: What's the role of the local bar?

SCHAEFER: If any society chose to reject alcohol, it would probably have other, more serious problems. There's the workplace, the home place, and this third place, where we talk, drink, and release ourselves from our everyday worries and troubles. A little bit of drinking goes a long way in terms of the health of the community. Without that outlet we'd have more fighting, violence, and civil strife. In Minnesota we recently passed stricter drunk driving laws that up shifted the penalties for drunken driving. Shortly thereafter, when the cops started busting people, domestic violence increased. The heavy drinkers were staying at home. Bar sales went down, but package store sales went up, as did spouse and child abuse.

It's an age old explanation, but I am more and more convinced that drinking alcohol in a relatively controlled public environment, where professionals are trained to recognize the intoxicated and immature drinkers, is the context in which our society can blow off steam. In small-town America the bar is the gossip center, the center of social activity. Without that corner bar to go to, there would be more homicides and violence.

OMNI: But can't we learn to release tension without alcohol?

SCHAEFER: With milk and cookies? It's been tried and it's not nearly as successful as with alcohol.

OMNI: So the release lies in the high?

SCHAEFER: Right. Some psychopharmacologists say altered states may be another human drive. I'm not necessarily buying into that, but there are people who believe that the occasional search for an altered state of consciousness is a healthy way of adjusting to life.

OMNI: In your opinion, what is a safe level of alcohol consumption?

SCHAEFER: If you're downing more than thirty five drinks a week, or five drinks a day, you're risking chemical dependency and medical consequences like cirrhosis, pancreatitis, cancer, and stroke. A person weighing more than one hundred thirty pounds should stick to about eight to ten drinks a week, with no more than five in one sitting. More than five per sitting could cause long term problems. For someone weighing less than one hundred thirty pounds, we recommend seven to eight drinks a week, with no more than four at one sitting. We also recommend that people stand when drinking, because people feel their intoxication more rapidly if they only have two point support. If you know your weight, you should have our blood alcohol chart memorized. God, I can't believe I said that, but it's the truth. Know just how many drinks you can drink. Stick to your limit. If you can't, get help.

OMNI: You mentioned that at one time you had a drinking problem.

SCHAEFER: In the early Sixties a lot of events brought me to that realization. I was really kind of out of control, and alot of my buddies knew it.

OMNI: How did you deal with it?

SCHAEFER: I never did anything official. I slowed down, got into a relationship with the woman I ended up marrying, and stayed married for a considerable period of time. If I had been living in Minnesota, for example, I would have been confronted and counseled into a treatment program. But back then in Montana - and still in Montana - the value system was one where people took care of their own problems. The opinion of my alcohol recovering friends to the contrary. I can now drink and then leave it alone. I don't drink the bottle dry. I intersperse nonalcoholic drinks with my alcohol. What I did was mature out of my drinking problem from a hell raiser to a family man.

Of course, by choosing my career in the alcohol abuse prevention field, I was helping myself. I exposed myself to all the reasons why people drink, biological as well as sociocultural. I continue to be in contact with treatment people and work extensively in developing programs that educated and train people in abuse prevention. I guess my work and life are a kind of therapy. Having been there - literally having gone to skid row and back, getting into fights, getting arrested and thrown in the drunk tank, and then getting bailed out by my favorite bartender at the Trail's End - gives me a unique kind of credibility.

I can now get into the scenes quickly. That's very subjective, and from a scientist's point of view, that subjectivity is often questionable. But the typical anthropological scheme is to use your intuitive and deductive powers by going into a scene, coming back with preliminary data, then systematically replicating them. The original insights usually come from a subjective, involved participant frame of reference. There's trial and error in understanding cultural patterns.

OMNI: Why is alcohol abuse the country's number one drug problem?

SCHAEFER: American society is very immature. We're on this treadmill of "Gotta go! Gotta get the bucks!" It may be endemic in a capitalist system that we tend to overdo in our lives and sometimes burn out. Our self-imposed, highly competitive system puts us all under a great deal of risk for outlets such as excessive drinking or bouts of depression. Our biochemical, neurochemical wiring hasn't been prepared for these kinds of stresses. Self-medicating is a pattern of culturally approve behavior.

Per capita consumption of alcohol is, on average, declining, indicating that by the mid-Seventies, community tolerance for alcohol abuse had reached its peak. A number of things occurred, the most recent being housewife Candy Lightner forming the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (in 1981). People resolved that driving while drunk is a totally inappropriate social behavior. But the reality is a lot of people still drink and drive.

You change behavior in a Judeo-Christian society by deglamorization and mild repression. Look at cigarette smoking. That's what our drunk driving laws do. The recognition of alcoholism as a disease was a major step in the direction of helping people with problems. People arrested today have a slightly lower blood alcohol level than they did in the early Eighties. Yet I do foresee alcoholism continuing to be the number one drug problem in the coming millennium.

OMNI: What about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or the Betty Ford Clinic or the many other treatment centers? How well do they work?

SCHAEFER: The twelve step program of AA is a blueprint for living that has helped a huge number of people recover from very serious problems with alcohol. It's a wonderful and effective fellowship. At Betty Ford you enroll full time as an inpatient for a month, then return on an outpatient basis or, in some cases, not until you relapse. There is a good likelihood of a slip, maybe a full blown relapse, with any of these treatment programs. Statistics are hard to come by, but I've heard that about one in four slips. And of those, one in four has a full blow relapse (within four years) and will need to get back into a program.

OMNI: Philosopher Herbert Fingarette created a stir two years ago by hypothesizing that alcoholism is really just a bad drinking habit.

SCHAEFER: There have been few governing ideas about alcohol. There's the "Colonial" view: Alcoholism is a moral wrong. That eventually led to Prohibition: Demon rum wrapped up in temperance. Then came the idea, surfacing about thirty years ago, that people who become chemically dependent suffer from an illness. The majority position is that of Fingarette's philosophy. Although in the United States its greatest expression has been found in behavioral psychology, it dominates European thinking about drinking. Alcohol, the argument goes, is a beverage that we learn to use. Some people get into trouble; some don't. The problem is behavioral, not genetic.

If you buy into the other, disease model - which, quite frankly, has been primarily conceived as a particular kind of alcoholism - then your only choice in correcting the problem is complete abstinence. Yet I accept the idea that some people change their alcoholic like behavior and control their intake or spontaneously stop without help. I think Fingarette makes a good case for behavior modification as possibility for some people with drinking problems. Such programs work best with persons who have a stable social and spiritual framework with which to rebuild their lives.

But I believe that up to twenty five percent of all alcohol problems may someday be explained by genetic factors. Many families have gone from generation to generation inheriting the biological baggage of addiction. But the legacy doesn't necessarily have to be genetic. It can be passed on through poor family patterning in a disruptive atmosphere, a weakened moral network.

OMNI: Will it ever be possible to eradicate alcoholism?

SCHAEFER: Yes and no. Remember that with alcoholism we're only talking about seven percent of the population. The biggest societal cost is not from alcoholism but periodic abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Treating the psychosocial part of alcoholism is our best chance for eradicating the problem in the short run. We can reduce the risk by building a culture with a better sense of individual responsibility about alcohol use. We can also building stronger families, neighborhoods, and communities with more awareness about appropriate use of alcohol among adults. That is what prevention's all about.

Now, the biological part may be more difficult. First we have to elucidate the precise addictive pathways. In the future we may understand the chemical structure of the chromosomes and where the genetic markers for the addictive potential lie. Then with gene therapy, say, we could adjust a person's genetic makeup prior to the reproductive years. That way he would not pass on the addictive genetic material to his children, and then eventually we might be able to eradicate the defect from the gene pool. Maybe we could give the person a choice of having the adjustment done or not. If not, then he could pay a large fine or something. (He laughs) Alternatively, we could transplant a lot of livers and related body parts in addicts and abusers. Any biological tinkering might be too Draconian for our libertarian tastes. Yet another way of dealing with these problems is to create a novel family of drugs or anti-intoxicants that enable you to experience better living through chemistry, so you could drink, enjoy it, and not suffer the medical consequences.

OMNI: Haven't you been consulting on the development of such a product?

SCHAEFER: I'M A SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT WITH 21ST CENTURY PHARMACEUTICALS, A COMPANY HERE IN MINNEAPOLIS. IT HAS A PATENT ON A PRODUCT CALLED ALCOSORB THAT IS MUCH LIKE WHAT I'VE DESCRIBED. IT'S NOT A DRUG, IT'S A MICROVERSION OF THE CHARCOAL SLURRY USED IN ACUTE POISONINGS. ALCOSORB IS AN ACTIVATED CARBON CAPLET THAT ACTS AS A SUPERFILTER IN THE INTESTINE. AFTER THE FIRST STAGE OF CLINICAL TESTS, IT LOOKS PROMISING. IT APPEARS TO ALTER DRAMATICALLY THE BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL. ALCOSORB WILL BE CONTROVERSIAL BECAUSE IT WON'T COMPLETELY BLOCK THE INTOXICATING EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL.

WE ARE TALKING AN ALICE IN WONDERLAND VIEW NOW, BUT I THINK WE CAN GET CLOSE TO BLOCKING THE PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL ABUSE WITH A PRODUCT THAT WOULD ABSORB THE TOXIC SUBSTANCES INTOXICATING EFFECTS. IT WOULD REQUIRE, OF COURSE, THAT WE DEVELOP A WHOLE CULTURAL VALUE SYSTEM AROUND IT.

OMNI: But wouldn't that open a Pandora's box of trouble? Without the threat of a hangover, what's to stop a person from getting drunk every night? Doesn't this encourage addiction to alcohol?

SCHAEFER: Not necessarily. In the short run it causes an ethical dilemma for people promoting the use of such a product. Should people always have to suffer the natural consequences of over consumption: pounding heart, sweats, waking up in a pool of urine, the foul odor? If this product kept you from receiving those messages, it would not be a good idea. But again, this is a futuristic idea, and we need revolutionary changes in how we deal with the problem of addiction. I envision sophisticated chemistry enabling us to block or reduce some of the effects that are very costly to individuals, communities, and society as a whole.

The dog tests on Alcosorb are under way now in Texas, and they're looking good. We need to test human at relatively high blood alcohol levels. So our next big hurdle will be the current federal guidelines that prohibit us from taking humans up to very high alcohol levels.

OMNI: Tell us about the search for the biological marker of alcohol consumption, rather than alcoholism.

SCHAEFER: We're interested in detecting in simple blood samples whether as individual has been drinking during the prior week, month, three or four months, or year. Based on the ratio of certain blood chemistry structures, we should be able to see a person's drinking history and advise the individual or family about the relative risk of developing problems related to alcohol abuse or potential addition.

We are not trying to develop a marker for alcoholism per se. There are numerous gross blood based measurements available, and although perhaps useful for verifying alcoholism in some people who already have a problem, they have what we think are some fatal flaws: They depend on liver damage, for one thing, and that's already looking at the problem after the fact. They don't take into account, nor do they reflect, alcohol intake or dose-related responses, so they put the cart before the horse. We are looking for a marker covering the continuum, from abstinence to heavy abuse. We are investigating people with different levels of consumption: those who don't drink, those who drink moderately, social drinkers who overdo it from time to time, and heavy drinkers who do not develop full blown chemical dependency problems.

The principal investigator, biochemist John Belcher, also at the University of Minnesota, has studied ways of detecting risks in both smokers and people in passive or secondary smoke situations such as airplanes. With alcohol we're looking at two different metabolic pathways. One is the oxidative pathway, where we're following the breakdown of the ethanol molecule into its various metabolites, particularly acetaldehyde.

In the other, nonoxidative pathway we're following the fatty acid ethyl esters and studying disruptions in chemical structure as a result of varying doses of alcohol. Using mass spectrometry and novel gas chromatography techniques, we're analyzing the sequences of certain amino acid chains and long chain peptides for minute differences. On a preliminary basis, we're found remarkable differences between people who drink and those who don't. That was our first clue that we were on to something. Now we're sorting through our data to make sure we are not creating our own monster through various detection methods; fusion's, dilutions, saturation's, and so forth.

We have examined a couple dozen nondrinkers and about a dozen drinkers and are comparing their blood samples under different doses. My role is recruiting the subjects. I'm out there beating the bushes for drinkers, abstainers, and recovering alcoholics, those who have abstained for five, ten, and seventeen years. We want to see if their hemoglobin structures are any different from people who have never been exposed to alcohol. We'll give some subjects doses of alcohol; then we'll take blood samples over various periods of time. We have them come back the next day, three days, then a week later, and months later. They'll keep a diary, too, of any drinks they have. We hope to correlate blood structures we've analyzed with their self reports. What got us very excited about this was that we were able to isolate a particular point in a hemoglobin molecule, the first line on the chart we think will eventually be able to delineate the light, moderate, and heavy drinker. And we found it in a place we never thought we'd find it: in the abstainer.

OMNI: Grants for alcohol related studies are plentiful. Have times changed?

SCHAEFER: Yes. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is now very interested in research on drinking environments. And I've seen a number of proposals for investigating such things as what happens when you deregulate a state with liquor controls or begin to train bar staffs in a specific community. Ten years ago people were skeptical of the relevance of my work. It was pretty lonesome out there. Now there's lots of attention. Richard Sykes and I put in a proposal to recruit a hundred groups of drinkers to essentially go out and drink in bars, wearing body packed microcassette recorders. We'll transcribe their conversations in time sync so we can analyze how bar customers make decisions about drinks, reorders, and driving.

OMNI: What do you hope to achieve by your work?

SCHAEFER: I like my idea of the hospitality covenant where a community gets the retail liquor businesses together and they promulgate their own set of voluntary standards. A number of communities are employing my idea. Also, I hope more social scientists will now be willing to get out to do work in the establishments, the grocery and liquor stores, and not rely on proxy studies. Unless you've done your share of hanging out, you can't ask the right questions.

OMNI: Do you think the role of alcohol will change in the next few years?

SCHAEFER: Right now we're headed for a continuation of neo-Prohibition. I think we're going to continue to swing to the right regarding alcohol controls, because the governing image is still of alcoholism as a disease whose spread must be curbed. In the long run, though, there'll be a rebound, and we'll see per capita consumption go back up. But what our children's children will do with alcohol is anybody's guess. I also expect we'll legalize marijuana. All the cigarette companies are patiently waiting. They've already trademarked names.

OMNI: Bar owners have consulted you about the design of their establishments. What ideas do you have for future bars?

SCHAEFER: I would have exits that mimic the field sobriety tests. The exit itself would resemble a fun house. You'd go into a tunnel with a floor that's not quite level. To get out you'd have to navigate a maze. Maybe the sides would be electronic so if you hit them, there'd be a light show - and then a cab would be waiting for you when you finally made it out. If you did. Or you might automatically be given a breath test. Instead of waiting for the sobriety test from Smokey, why not have the bars provide it?

OMNI: Will we always have bars?

SCHAEFER: In the late Seventies I was giving a paper in Norway on alcohol abuse. On a day off, I headed for a bar, where I met two guys who said they had a film showing at a local film festival. They were George Lucas and Mark Hamill, and they asked me if I wanted to come to their screening. I did, and Star Wards came on, and it was fantastic. One scene that bothered me a bit, though, was the cantina scene, with the pulling down of hookahs by all those weird creatures. I asked Lucas, who is anthropologically trained, about it. He said he believed there's always going to be a place where ideas are brokered. And it's more likely going to be in a situation where people can have unlimited access to whatever chemical they want. Although I argued with him on details, Lucas is basically right. There's always going to be a place to go to achieve altered states - the third place. And in the future we'll have much more open minds about the benefits of achieving altered states now and then.