What can be done to prevent the tragedy of youth suicide probably the same as drug abuse, racism, shut up the messenger and pretend it does not exist!

Date:   12/10/2007 5:58:39 PM ( 17 y ago)

On eleventh and main street in Bozeman, The stench of Marijuana wafts stronger than the smell of Christmas trees in this small predominantly White Upper middle class community

On Radio station KMMS in Bozeman, the host and hostess tell me this has been going on for years and the corner actually has been nicknamed " getting high corner or something similar to that.

I have written a book about a Bronx persons experience in this predominantly white Rocky Mountain Community

Marijuana is readily available throughout Montana. It is the most commonly abused drug in the state. A recent survey conducted by the Montana State Addictive and Mental Disorders Division indicated that 47 percent of all high school students had used marijuana in their lifetime. The survey also found that 27 percent described themselves as regular users. The majority of the marijuana consumed in Montana originates in Mexico. Mexican polydrug organizations transport marijuana in vehicles from the southwest border states to Montana. Locally produced marijuana is primarily grown indoors, with grows generally consisting of less than 100 plants. Trafficking groups normally acquire supplies of marijuana from the Southwest Border area and smuggle hundred-pound loads into Montana on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Potent B.C. Bud or Kind Bud from the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada is increasing in popularity and availability. B.C. Bud is often smuggled directly into Montana across the Canadian border. This marijuana would then be transshipped to other areas of the United States.



A quick pop culture quiz to separate the hip from the formerly hip: What does the term 420 (pronounced four-twenty) mean?

If you don't know that it is an international code word for smoking marijuana -- especially at 4:20 and on 4/20 -- you are not as with it as you think you are.

The term floats just below the radar of many baby boomer parents who are totally clueless about the vast underground that celebrates the term.

Parents will hear about it by spring. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) intends to drag the code word into the mainstream. For the first time, it will hold its annual conference on 4/20 --April 20, a day known as Stoners' New Year.

"We have scheduled the conference to coincide with 4/20, the date that has become associated in the popular culture as a special day for marijuana smokers -- sort of what 'Miller time' has become to beer drinkers," says its Web site, norml.org. "We hope to build on that tradition."

NORML's Allen St. Pierre notes that, unfortunately, 4/20/99 was the day of the Columbine school shootings, but says he believes the two were not connected.

The origin of the term is a bit hazy. Some say it has been a police radio code for "pot smoking in progress." But Steven Hager, editor of High Times, has traced it back to 1971, to some pot-smoking wiseacres at a California high school who met frequently at 4:20 to light up. The term caught on and was popularized in the counterculture by the Grateful Dead, Hager says.

It is now "known universally around the world by people in the (drug) culture," Hager says. "And for 20 years, there have been important rituals and ceremonies that happen on April 20," including those on college campuses.

Those observations now include some teens staying home from school. "At most public schools, April 20 is an (unofficial) holiday," says John Heydinger, 16, of St. Paul, Minn. "Kids hang out and party."

Those who party too hearty might say they are "420-ed," he says, or really stoned.

St. Pierre is amazed "by the mass commercialization that has grown up around 420. Kids can buy all kinds of stuff with 420 on it," including clothing through the Net and "skateboards, surfboards, snowboards."

Some teens say they use the term almost as a joke. "It's like you see someone in the hall at 4:20 and say, '420, dude, ha, ha,' " says Brady Welch, 17, of Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

Teens don't make much of it at his school, says Jared Holst, 15, of Englewood, Colo. "Kids just happen to know what it means. Someone will say when it is 4:20."

Parents are usually oblivious to the reference, says Beth Kane Davidson, director of the addiction treatment center at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. "This is a whole culture with kids." The message is, she says, "even if your adolescent is at home alone at 4:20, and he smokes up, he is not alone. He knows somebody somewhere else is smoking also."

St. Pierre has some qualms about going public with the term for the NORML conference. "As soon as it gets bandied about on the Today show, 420 will fizzle as a cultural phenomenon."

Source: USA Today


I learned that in this Montana community one does not bring up racism, bigotry, anti Semitism or question the job that Montana teachers are doing. One can finger point at MSU African American Football players who were indicted and convicted in drug sales. but, one does not criticize the predominantly white population. if one does they will be blackballed, outcast and it is much easier to attack the messenger than to deal with real Montana problems.


What are the facts about adolescent suicide in Montana?
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Montana youth ages 10-24.
• Only unintentional injuries such as car wrecks, drowning and fire kill more Montana youth than does suicide.
• On average, every 2 weeks a Montana youth completes suicide.
• This is not a new phenomenon. Montana has ranked in the top 5 States for the highest rates of youth suicide for the past several decades.
• Alcohol and drug impairment, a sense of hopelessness, and underlying mental illness all contribute to the high rate of youth suicide.
• In 2001, 27% of High School students in Montana reported they felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities. (YRBS/OPI)
• Well over half of all Montana High School students have used alcohol within the past 30 days.
• Montana follows the same pattern as most of the United States: females are more apt to attempt suicide, and males are more apt to complete suicide. This is because more females choose reversible means such as poison, and more males choose irreversible means such as firearms.
• It is estimated that the suicide-related medical costs in Montana for a single year total over $6 million. Lost future earnings tops $19 million, and loss to quality of life is estimated at $78 million.
• The emotional and social cost of these losses is immeasurable. Most every person in Montana has felt the hurt, anger, loss, and despair caused by this kind of preventable death.
What can be done to prevent the tragedy of youth suicide
probably the same as drug abuse, racism, shut up the messenger
and pretend it does not exist!

c-2007
Donald Iarussi MFA


 

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