Is There an Epidemic?

~ Laura

Yesterday was doctor appointment day. I like to pack in as many doctor’s appointment into one day as possible. It’s always best to clump up annoying tasks together and then treat oneself to a large glass of wine in the evening.

But yesterday was also the US v. Germany game in the World Cup. Jonah and I caught the first half an hour on the home TV before we had to leave. First up, the orthodontist. He had the game on three TVs. A slice of white pizza at the local pizza place, which was only showing the game in the kitchen. So, we went to the next doctor’s appointment early hoping that they would be showing the game in the waiting room. No game there, so we watched it on our iPhones.

And then we waited and waited. An hour and half later, the nurse told us that an emergency had come in and we should go home.

This morning at the make-up appointment, the doctor explained that she couldn’t see us, because they had an emergency. An 18-year old came into the office having a drug-induced meltdown. There was some concern that he had a knife. He was eventually transferred to a local hospital. He told the doctor that he was smoking a mixture of alcohol and pot. He thought the doctor was stupid for not hearing about this cocktail before. He had been doing lots of LSD, too. The doctor said he was probably doing other stuff, too.

I asked if the medical community was in touch with schools and other organizations about the stuff that was coming through their doors. She said no. The biggest problems are in the 18-25 year old range, and they are no longer getting yearly check ups. They only have contact with the medical community when they overdose. She said that it was a disaster.

I keep hearing these stories from local cops and doctors. I see an occasional story about heroin, but more often I read about the happy stoners in Colorado. What’s the truth?

Published by Laura

18 thoughts on “Is There an Epidemic?”

  1. I don’t wait longer than an hour if I have an appointment.

    Re drug issues: I teach a lot of 18-25 year olds, and mainly 18 year olds (freshman composition!). I hear mostly about smoking pot and drinking, not much about hard drug use. I know it’s happening, but I think those problems are the outliers. I think returning to the 18 year old drinking age and going back to “wet” dorms would help because then the students wouldn’t have motivation to hide their non-problem drinking/smoking and would report the problem drinking/smoking. A lot of students get suspended for drinking/smoking on campus. It sucks. I worked with one student to write her appeal letter. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. 😦

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  2. I think the illegality of alcohol encourages over use. If the consequences are the same for being caught with a six pack as for having a keg, I might as well throw a party and get hammered. Also, it is riskier to have one beer from a six pack and keep the rest for later as that prolongs the time in which I could be caught with alcohol, so I might as well drink it all now.

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    2. I wish there was data on these questions. Superficial google searches doesn’t encounter it, but it seems like we should have better data. I feel like most of what I hear is very speculative and ideologically driven.

      There is definitely evidence that higher minimum ages are associated with lower rates of binge drinking (for example, the rate of binge drinking among American 18yo is estimated at 36% v 47% for Europeans). Higher MPA (minimum purchase age) is associated with less binge drinking (Cook & Moore), and lower rates of traffic fatalities (De Jong et al, 2014).

      There is also a state/state analysis, that suggests that lifetime binge drinking might be higher for men (only men, not women) who grew up in states with higher MPA (this is a long term correlation study) and provides counter-evidence, with the possibility that higher MPA just delays the lifetime risk of binge drinking rather than decreasing it permanently. On the other hand, in that study, rates of binge drinking were higher among non-college educated males, suggesting that college binge drinking isn’t a risk factor, and raising the possibility that the state/state correlations might reflect the general relationships seen in a variety of risk factors that also correlate with the relative poverty in different states.

      I’m troubled when I see the ideological arguments (why shouldn’t 18 year olds, who can sign student loans, join the army, be sent to fight in foreign wars, . . . . be allowed to make their own choice about drinking) conflated with the public health effects. I am sympathetic to the ideology, but want to keep the public health effects in the realm of data and analysis.

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      1. I can’t find the full text of the De Jong article. I certainly wouldn’t put much weight on comparisons of Europe versus America, unless you find me some large devout religious sects in Europe which prohibit alcohol entirely. But I agree, the public health question should be separated from the ideological one. At the same time, the public health conclusion should not be dispositive and should not be based on a single measure.

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      2. “…unless you find me some large devout religious sects in Europe which prohibit alcohol entirely.”

        Ooooh, now that you mention it, I wonder what the presence of Muslim communities is doing to alcohol consumption patterns in Europe. Presumably the glass-of-wine-with-maman-et-papa thing is not done in those communities, so alcohol consumption among young Muslims may track our binge pattern, but for social rather than legal reasons. Interesting.

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  3. he was smoking a mixture of alcohol and pot.

    I assume he was smoking pot and drinking, now “smoking a mixture”- how would that work? (Google didn’t turn up anything in a quick search.) But, mixing drinking and other drugs is often a problem, but not a new one. I expect that there is more reporting on pot now because of changes in the law, and you’re more sensitive to the reporting because of the age of your kids, but that the underlying reality is pretty close to what it’s been for some time. So, best to not worry. Also, I mostly agree w/ Wendy.

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    1. It’s apparently known as “fry”: http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/sexualassault/fry.htm.

      Cigarettes soaked in embalming fluid have recently emerged as a form of date-rape drug. The cigarettes, commonly known as “fry,” are tobacco or marijuana cigarettes “laced” (dipped) in any drug, alcohol or solvent. Common street names for the treated cigarettes include “amp,” “water-water,” “drank,” “wetdaddy,” and “french fries.

      Embalming fluid is comprised of alcohol (methanol, ethyl alcohol or ethanol), formaldehyde, and solvents. Smoking this liquid on the filter tip or within the tobacco or marijuana will vaporize the substance and the smoker inhales the mixture into the lungs. It is absorbed almost instantly and it passes directly into the brain. The effect is instant. Formaldehyde is one of the “aldehyde” compounds that are responsible for the hangover after an alcohol binge.

      Sometimes, the compound used in the “fry” is PCP, or Angel Dust. These drugs add an incredible level of danger to the user: they can kill. According to a 1998 study by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, those who smoke “fry” may experience toxic psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, and unconsciousness.

      Whatever substance is used to lace the cigarette, the cigarette will taste strange and have an unusual, pungent smell. Cigarettes laced with embalming fluid taste like rubbing alcohol and smell like gasoline when lit. These have the capacity to kill the user during initial intake.

      So, it exists. I found references to “fry” on alcanon as well. Nasty.

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  4. I entirely agree with Wendy (not the most common event). What she says is consistent with what I hear from my daughter about the Emory campus, and Wake Forest before that.

    To be fair, however, although I think the current drinking age makes things worse, heavy drinking has been characteristic behavior for 18 to 25 year olds for thousands of years (read about Alcibiades and his friends, or about the Latin Quarter in the 14th century). And mixing alcohol with other drugs has certainly been common in America for the past 50 years.

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  6. The drinking age should be lowered. It’s no impediment to young people drinking. It is, however, harder for them to get alcohol than to get pot and lsd. And there’s nothing which requires anyone to take only one intoxicant at a time.

    mixing all three:
    http://ithacavoice.com/2014/06/naked-ithaca-college-student-tries-taking-police-officers-gun-lsd-records-show/

    http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2014/03/13/reny-jose-likely-drowned-influence-lsd-say-police-panama-city-beach/

    Shot:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/gil-collar-lsd-dead-alabama_n_1952035.html

    Long article about lsd use at Yale: http://yaledailynews.com/weekend/2014/04/25/the-problem-child/

    There was an incident at the TD North Garden yesterday; dozens of concertgoers were carted off to the hospital. In the morning, the word was “intoxicated.” This evening, the headline on the print edition of the Globe pointed to Molly (MDMA). Now, my college daughter saw the headline, laughed, and said, “well, obviously.” See: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/06/mayor_marty_walsh_mulls_rave_crackdown

    It’s not an epidemic; teenagers and young adults oriented themselves to drugs when alcohol became hard to get. The culture changed. There are also lab-made “designer drugs.”

    It makes me sad, because this generation will lose simple pleasures we enjoyed as a result. There was talk in the Herald piece of blaming the Garden for having “intoxicated patrons.”. Well, if they’re popping pills while at the concert, that’s hard to control. Much easier not to hold concerts which appeal to the 16 – 24 year olds.

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  7. Sort of topically, I’m at my reunion so drinking with the people I drank illegally with. Last night, I got drunk in what used to be a JC Penny.

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  8. I’m visiting my mom in NY now, and I asked her if there was binge drinking when she was in college (one year at SUNY New Paltz, one year at U Florida). She said no. She said everyone went out to bars. Also, she thinks that one of the reasons there is more drinking today is because everyone has more money now. Back then, you had to scrape together your spare change to afford a few beers, so you couldn’t binge drink.

    Just the view from the Class of ’66.

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    1. The class of ’89 certainly agrees with the class of ’66 on the importance of never being honest with your kids about how much you drank in college.

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      1. Ha, my mom insists she’s telling the truth. 😛 She did mention drinking more while working summers in the Catskills. (I didn’t ask about Dirty Dancing–I didn’t want to know!)

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  9. You might need more data to see if alcohol or drug abuse is at epidemic levels,
    but if your children became drug addicts or alcoholics, you might
    not care about statistics.

    A major problem is temporary use becoming a chronic addition,
    and if your children reach 18 years or older, you cannot control
    their lives and force them to treatment.

    Try to make sense of this–a drug addict will deny that he has a
    problem (that’s part of the disease) and refuse help, but he cannot be helped until
    he agrees to get help.

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