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Williams has ordered his commanders to crack down on liquor license infractions and public drinking abuses. While that is what is happening on the law enforcement side, what is really happening on the ground and in the lives of those who have a drinking problem? What is alcoholism and how are people coping with it? For over a month, our Courtney Weatherburne has met and conducted several interviews with recovering alcoholics to get the answers to these questions and to better understand how destructive alcohol addiction is. Here is her special feature report...

Courtney Weatherburne
"One Barrell, Coconut Rum, and Black label are only 3 among many options regular folks may have stored in their homes for cocktails, parties, entertaining guests, or just enjoying a quiet evening alone. But for many, a few swigs with friends is not enough because alcohol is the center of their world."

Eleanor Bennett, Head of Mental Health Unit
"Alcoholism or what it is now referred to as alcohol use disorder is a mental disorder that is characterized by a specific set of symptoms. Now those symptoms include like the person craves alcohol, they really want it, another symptom would be tolerance meaning the person finds him or herself drinking more alcohol just to get the pleasure he or she got the first time they drank, and then a third symptom would be using the substance or alcohol even though it has serious consequences socially and physically so because of those three things alcoholism is considered a 1:40 disease."

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
There are thousands of Belizeans from all walks of life living with this disease. Many of them don't recognize it, neither do their loved ones, some of them know they have a drinking problem but refuse to accept it and seek help, others are so consumed by the disease that it's almost impossible to see a way out. In many instances, persons living with this disease end up harming others and themselves. In some cases, they end up dead either by illness associated with alcohol abuse, or maybe killed in a drunken brawl or a drunk driving accident, among other violent or accidental deaths. Alcoholism is an epidemic in Belize but what blocks most from seeing this reality is the pervasive culture of binge drinking in Belize. It is one of most popular past-times which almost always starts off as a harmless pursuit of escape.

Eleanor Bennett, Head of Mental Health Unit
"Really what alcohol does it stimulates a part of the brain that gives us pleasure, so the pleasure center of our brain because it causes a particular chemical, when we engage in pleasurable activities it causes the release of that chemical and so it feels good in the beginning. People get less inhibited and so it facilitates relationships and then people start their conversations and they facilitate intimacy, then they get more confident but that is in the beginning as people continue to drink and people get more and more intoxicated those positive effects become negative or harmful."

"It becomes an issue when alcohol, after continued use changes the area in the brain that deals with pleasure and the change could be permanent and because it stimulates the pleasure chemical, what first begins as a choice to drink then becomes a compulsion to drink because repeated use causes damage to that area."

Phillip "Gabby" Pook knows all about that impulse. For about 8 years Pook would drink every day, all day.

He would sleep outside bars to get his drink first thing in the morning. He would have no desire or craving for food.

Voice of: Phillip "Gabby" Pook, Recovering Alcoholic
"Drinking was my thing when I tell you as I get up in the morning you are in the club, before you go sleep it is out of the club you are coming, with your foot out of the club."

Courtney Weatherburne:
"How many glasses of rum would you have in the span of one 1:33 day you would say?"

Voice of: Phillip "Gabby" Pook, Recovering Alcoholic
"If I get 5 drink out of a liter it would be about 25 glasses of liquor for the day."

Another city resident who asked to remain anonymous says he started to drink at age 10. He kept on drinking heavily into his adult years. He would get so drunk that he would black out.

Voice of: Recovering alcoholic
"It just got to a point that that's all you want: to drink, you understand? So out of 7 days of the week I couldn't recall six so it got to that point where I needed help."

He along with Pook got help from the staff at the welcome resource center in Belize City. They stop in almost everyday to get a fresh hot meal, shower, rest and keep themselves busy by reading watching TV or playing a game of bingo. There are over 500 registered center participants. Many of them are battling alcohol abuse problems among other issues such as other forms of mental illness and homelessness. But being at the center has helped them live a better life.

Joyce Ellis, Administrator, Welcome Resource Center
"Yes we do have some of the participants we got to re-integrate back into society. In fact, one of the participants is actually the person who does the security here at night because we have security from 6 until 6 and so he is one of the persons who does night security."

"It is a feel good moment, that is what I like about my center because we give them that dignity that people deprive them of."

Another group that assists persons in recovery is AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. It's a global fellowship for men and women who are battling their drinking problem. We visited the group in Boca Del Rio San Pedro.

Courtney Weatherburne
"A meeting in Paradise' is one of 17 Alcoholics Anonymous groups in Belize. This group meets here every night from 6:00 to 7:00. Now, AA has been in Belize since 1962 but it was only officially recognized as a member of the AA World Services in November of last year. These AA support meetings provide a safe and open space for alcoholics who want to get sober."

It was a full house as it usually is. The Boca Del Rio group is considered one of the most active AA groups in the country. The format of the all meetings is the same and it's based on a specific set of principles.

Voice of: AA member
"The program itself is called a twelve step program which involves steps that have to do with the admission of alcoholism also with the analysis of the personality of the individual, the mental healing, the re-setting of personal relationships, the dependence on a higher power and working with others, that is the basic program and it comes in the form of 12 steps."

One important segment in these meetings is the testimonials where the members share their stories or daily updates on how they survived the day.

Voice of: AA member
"I should be dead, a few years back I should be dead you now just over drinking. My thing I am also an addict, I consumed a lot of drugs, there were days that I was literally hopeless. All I can say is that I came to a realization 11 years ago in a rehab treatment that I was an alcoholic. I said the alcoholic was the guy that is pretty much drinking red top, that has lost it all, you know dirty, they are out there hopeless, homeless without a family and I criticized and judged. I was very judgmental because you now the crack head who is literally is begging for dollars out there just hopeless and I criticized, not realizing each and everyday I used to drink, I used to drug myself, literally destroying beautiful relationships, last days the book talks about constantly jails, constantly getting arrested, constantly getting into problems, constantly overdosed and you know, it is incredible those who were around me saw the need for me to get some help."

"When I drink there is an allergy the book talks about, like I hear tourists eat seafood and they start blowing up and say I have an allergy and it is pretty much the same scenario, I drink and you know the compulsion kicks in and it is a disaster not only for me but for the loved ones who want the best for me, I have two beautiful, handsome kids that have seen the worse of me. Today I am grateful for alcoholics anonymous because it restores family not only mine, it gives peace of mind."

Voice of: AA member
"I remember when I was crying to God, right? I tell him even though I do not come out from jail at least let him free me from my addiction. I was sad because I was in jail but I was like happy in the other side because I was not consuming drugs anymore."

Voice of: AA member
"It is interesting we just walked to get a coffee you know how many people asked us to buy weed, alcohol? We just wanted a cup of coffee, that is it but we can find every bar on the freaking beach to get a drink but just a cup of coffee it is not valuable enough. You know I like what people said about I mean I thought I was a drug addict so coming to AA was a little difficult for me because I didn't think I was an alcoholic."

"For me now putting alcohol, a liquid, a powder, snort it, smoke it or drink it it is still a drug, if it gets into my system it will change my chemistry, it will change my …it will set off my obsession and that is where I have to be really careful and not separate myself from I am this and I am that."

Voice of: AA member
"I have been struggling for the past three weeks with what most of us, well what I will call my demons. It hasn't been easy but coming to this room as the day goes by, I can tell you this for sure, it gets better and better everyday. I don't how long it will take this time to get back on my foot I am willing to do what the program tell me because I have tried it once and it does take you to a better place and a happier life."

Voice of: AA member
"I had 15 years of sobriety and I actually went back out on weed, pot, as soon as I smoked that pot, I was like screw it, I am going to drink, it was like the drink was waiting and you know, it is scary, it is crazy and fortunately it was not long I came back in and I have some time again but umm."

"I know that this disease in me lives everyday, doesn't matter how long I have been sober it is alive in me and I have also learned this disease just doesn't want me drunk; it wants me dead. The goal is dead, annihilation and I take that really seriously now and because of that I try to live in gratitude."

While these AA members have sought and found help after hitting rock bottom, there are so many still out there stuck at rock bottom. There are only 150 AA members countrywide which doesn't come close to the number of persons in dire need of intervention.

Eleanor Bennett: Head of Mental Health Unit
"When they make an estimation of the number of people who actually have this disease and compare it with the number of people accessing help it is about 8 in 10 persons not getting treatment, so that is the treatment gap."

But AA is trying to reduce that gap by retaining its existing members and keeping an open door policy for those who are ready to start the journey to recovery.

If you want to find out more about the welcome resource center you can visit them at the corner of Tibruce and Vernon streets. If you are more interested in joining the Alcoholics Anonymous family you can visit their website aabelize.org to find a meeting near you. There are meetings countrywide. You can also seek substance abuse counseling and alcohol withdrawal treatment from any clinic and hospital countrywide. There is also a privately owned rehabilitation center called Jacobs Farm in Corozal where alcoholics can get help. There is hope and there is a way out! Look out for part two of this special feature next week where we talk more about liquor licenses and enforcement.