Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20181124081953/@comment-4010415-20181203032444

Sometimes people enable alcoholics and just put up with it as just "That's how he/she is, and we'll deal with it."

To be honest, in It's Brawl in the Family, I didn't feel like it was played for comic relief. Rather, it was at first played like he was just this strange drunk who wandered on campus to fight Winter, who was visibly annoyed by his drunken antics. The comedy in this scene came from Ruby's excited reaction to seeing Qrow, rather than Qrow's drunk state.

Later in that same episode, in Ozpin's office, the comedy came from Ozpin's "Are you fucking serious right now" face when everyone turns around to see Qrow chugging more alcohol. While that is comic relief, I'll point out that Ozpin's face was one of "Seriously, Qrow?!", followed by a facepalm.

It really seems that everyone just puts up with it. Maybe they couldn't get him to stop, so now they don't bother trying, as long as he doesn't get totally shitfaced like he did in that Mistral bar. His alcohol tolerance is up enough that his usual drinking habit doesn't get him too drunk to function.