Deadly summer

<p>More of the same last night in Boston:</p>

<p>Three more possible overdoses at a concert
By adamg - 9/1/13 - 6:46 pm
Boston Police report they are investigating what appear to be three drug overdoses at a Bank of America Pavilion concert last night.</p>

<p>Three men in their 20s suffered apparent overdoses during a concert by Sound Tribe Sector 9, police say, adding all were taken to local hospitals for treatment.</p>

<p>On Wednesday, police say, three people ODed on Molly at a Zedd concert at the House of Blues, one fatally.</p>

<p>I admit I have a hard time understanding why so many kids feel the need to take drugs in order to enjoy electronic music.
I always felt that aside from perhaps a legal alcoholic beverage to relax a little, the * music* was enough, & getting high, especially overwhelmingly so, took away from your ability to enjoy the concert.
Perhaps if they can’t enjoy the music without it, they might rethink what they consider music.
Granted there have been deaths at rock & roll shows, even at a Pearl Jam concert :frowning: ( in Denmark during a festival when they slipped on muddy ground and fell & were trampled when the crowd surged forward, as a result PJ has been extremely careful about crowds & weather ever since), but virtually all the deaths resulting from drugs seem to be related to techno music.</p>

<p>@emeraldkity4: It’s not the music itself, but during the festivals/concerts/raves, the lights, the bass against your chest, and the visuals all over enhances the audience’s experience. By taking MDMA, or any drug really, you’re really enhancing the visuals and the feeling around you. And it is also part of the “rave culture.” It’s completely accepted to take these drugs – like COMPLETELY. In fact, when I went to my first one, people wondered why I was even sober.</p>

<p>I never understood why people took it either until I did myself once (out of pure curiosity on why). Needless to say, it was a great experience but my boyfriend and I prefer to go to these festivals sober or accompanied with alcohol.</p>

<p>I can tell you that something like this is an experience only you can experience for yourself in order to understand why people listen to it. I hated the ‘culture’/music before but then I experienced it myself.</p>

<p>Edit: I also think it is media publicizing the fact that electronic music = molly = OD. Back in high school, I attended a lot of rock/alternative concerts and I’ve seen crazy drug use relating to heroin, meth, and cocaine around it. A couple people I know OD’d or ended up in juvi because of the drug use, but nobody ever publicized these deaths.</p>

<p>Deaths due to heroin etc are not publicized because these drugs are well known to parents. Things like mdma are not and parents need to be educated about this stuff. Not all mdma experiences are great:</p>

<p>Potential Adverse Health Effects:</p>

<p>Nausea
Chills
Sweating
Involuntary jaw clenching and teeth grinding
Muscle cramping
Blurred vision
Marked rise in body temperature (hyperthermia)
Dehydration
High Blood Pressure
Heart failure
Kidney failure
Arrythmia</p>

<p>Apparently there’s about to be a segment on Molly on CNN sometime in the next half hour.</p>

<p>Very sad that two people, apparently, died at the concert, both 20 years old.</p>

<p>When I was in junior high and high school in the 70s we actually did have a lot of education on drugs, including alcohol and nicotine. A lot of the education came in the form of individuals who would come into the classroom and describe how heroin or amphetamine addiction (pills prescribed by doctors to help women lose weight!) affected their lives, for example.</p>

<p>But we got a ton of science-based information on the physical effects on the body of different drugs. It was really invaluable, and always in the back of my mind as a way to monitor myself when drinking or whatever. It was part of “Health” class. </p>

<p>And, interestingly, there was little judgment or admonition, just facts.</p>

<p>We got the very same approach with sex. I wish that my children got the same intensive practical education in school.</p>

<p>In my suburban district in the mid '70s we didn’t even have Health.
We had sex Ed as part of biology in 10th grade, where the class had synchronized their eye rolling.
My kids had much better info in school & earlier.</p>

<p>I should elaborate on - we didn’t have Health as a separate class.
My youngest had health in 9th grade & also as a middle school student as part of language arts & social studies.
They had some great topical discussions & were fortunate to also have a grant that paid for a drug/ alcohol counselor.
In my jr high in Redmond wa, we had smoking areas on campus & even bathrooms where students smoked. :p</p>

<p>Don’t know much about drug use - but 6 hits seems like a lot - the latest news:</p>

<p>The final day of the Electric Zoo was canceled yesterday after two deaths and multiple hospitalizations from bad Molly. But all Molly is bad Molly if you take six hits of it.</p>

<p>Gothamist reports that University of New Hampshire junior Olivia Rotondo, 20, told EMS workers that she took six hits of the party drug before collapsing, having a seizure, and then dying. “I just took six hits of Molly,’’ she reportedly told the EMS worker.</p>

<p>Also ask your kids if they know what dirty Sprite is. It’s where they add Codeine, Promethazine, Xanax to a 16 oz. bottle of Sprite, shake & drink. Crazy. Oh yeah, then there’s lean. Another concoction that the morons have come up with. </p>

<p>I find that most drug use during the teen years is about doing what others do/being apart of the crowd. Sad. I’ve always impressed upon my kids to be leaders instead of followers. Following what another wayward idiot is a doing is a sure fire way to get your *ss into trouble/dead. A startling number of kids that she went to parochial school(k-8) with use weed/other drugs/booze. And their lives show it, one kid is incarcerated, pregnancies, poor school performance. Sounds like these kids are off to a stellar start in life huh?</p>

<p>What’s odd is that they come from all socio economic/racial backgrounds, some/most are from 2 parent homes, one girls dad is the Captain of a local police dept, another is the son of a correction officer, his mom is an RN. The incarcerated kids mom is a DCF supervisor. Most live in the suburbs and seem to have really great lives.</p>

<p>I think my no nonsense…my way or the high way/I’m not afraid of a judge kind of single parenting style has kept my kids pretty straight. My $ has to go for rent, bills, food. Not bail money or drug rehab. So they better choose wisely.</p>

<p>There’s tons of every day examples of what havoc drugs will wreak on one’s life. All they have to do is look in their own city. The crack whores who sell sexual favors for $5 a pop. Or the meth freaks who are homeless and live by the rivers edge under tarps…the bums who await the opening of the liquor store each and every morning…fighting for a spot in line. Kids need to know that drugs/liquor abuse is not sexy. Theirs nothing sexy about a stringy haired heroine addict begging for change with a baby in the belly. </p>

<p>I also read a study where drug rehab is successful in 5% of cases. Wow. What a wonderful success rate. Why play with a vice, that if one becomes addicted, you have a 95% chance of failing?</p>

<p>I’ve observed that much drug use is an attempt to self medicate.
The physical / mental illness comes first & then the self medication. Usually with alcohol because it is society approved, but then with other substances if that doesn’t work.</p>

<p>My H is an alcoholic but he went through treatment and hasn’t had a drink or wanted to in 17 years. :smiley: no relapses. He has done great.</p>

<p>I’m " fortunate" to apparently not have an addictive response. No matter what the substance, I don’t crave it and have to have alarms to remind me to take even the oxycodone that was prescribed after my knee replacement. I put it in quotes because I let my pain get away from me because I don’t take it even when I need it. Letting the pain get away from you makes it much more difficult to get back under control.</p>

<p>In contrast to my high school years, neither of my kids lost friends to alcohol/drugs although gang violence was a problem in the inner city school.
But not drinking or drugs. Just guns.:(.</p>

<p>“I think my no nonsense…my way or the high way/I’m not afraid of a judge kind of single parenting style has kept my kids pretty straight. My $ has to go for rent, bills, food. Not bail money or drug rehab. So they better choose wisely.”</p>

<p>In some cases, no matter what a parent does, a kid is going to have problems with drugs. Most kids have tried drugs including alcohol but only a small percentage end up as addicts or dead.</p>

<p>I agree with DocT. Additionally, I will go farther to say that unlike the judgemental labels that newhavenmom has given addicted kids, IMO, it is the luck of the draw who gets addicted.
Just because I have been able to try various drugs including alcohol and can leave them alone, that doesnt make me superior to the millions of adults & teens who become addicted to one or more legal & illegal substances.
Only 1 in 10 get help, and much of that help isnt very effective.
[CASAColumbia.org:</a> News Room: Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap between Science and Practice](<a href=“http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/NewsRoom.aspx?articleid=678&zoneid=51]CASAColumbia.org:”>http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/NewsRoom.aspx?articleid=678&zoneid=51)

</p>

<p>My husband was lucky- however he is still battling with nicotine.
He has quit several times over the years, but it is apparently a very powerful addiction.
Myself on the otherhand quit smoking when they hit $.65 a pack. I thought it was a ridiculous price and just decided to stop.
He is getting ready to quit again, & Im confident that eventually it will take.
Maybe he should try an old fashioned strategy of smoking an entire pack at once, except I think that sounds not only disgusting but dangerous.
However that strategy worked for Colin Farrell or maybe it was the goodbye letter that he wrote cigarettes that did the trick.;)</p>

<p>Both my maternal grandfather & my dad smoked cigarettes, but both quit before I was born.
I didn’t even know my dad had smoked until after he died, however my grandpa used to smoke a pipe as well & after he quit, would sit out on his patio hoping to catch a whiff.
But I am more typical I think of those who quit smoking.
Hypersensitive to the smell & I absolutely hate it. ( pipe smoke I don’t mind-it doesn’t smell as bad & it reminds me of grandpa)
But cigars are worse. Our neighbor used to smoke cigars. :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :p</p>

<p>A lot of parents are delusional about their children and drugs. I don’t know anybody in my generation who didn’t try drugs at least once. I doubt many kids today haven’t tried any drugs including nicotine and alcohol at least once. People become addicted for different reasons including genetic. I know one drug addict who even after multiple times in intensive care continued to use. I know a smoker who had lung cancer and on oxygen who continued to smoke. Addiction can be so powerful that even at death’s door, it is impossible to stop.</p>

<p>I wonder what parents who say that they don’t have money for rehab to help their kid would think when their kid dies?</p>

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<p>I never did drugs of any kind growing up. Nor did either of my two best friends. We drank alcohol, though, so maybe that counts. Not a lot, but definitely experimented a little bit. Drinking age was 18, so when we turned 18 it didn’t seem like that big of a deal.</p>

<p>Drugs scared me. When I was out of college and in the working world, a friend asked me if I wanted to go for “a bump.” We were at a dance club, and I thought he was asking me to dance. :o</p>

<p>“We drank alcohol, though, so maybe that counts.” - maybe that counts??? LOL! The impact of alcoholism dwarfs issues with any other drug.</p>

<p>^^^^Yeah, it’s a “drug.” So is caffeine. But most people don’t think “alcohol” when someone says “I do recreational drugs.” And I think you know that, too. Could be why people use the term “drugs and alcohol” as opposed to being inclusive with the word “drugs.”</p>

<p>As a teen, I tried it occasionally, really to see what the big deal was. I didn’t like the feeling after having more than one or two. In college, I was legal but usually couldn’t afford to drink very often. Certainly didn’t attain the level of alcoholism, thank goodness. ;)</p>

<p>Well unfortunately most people are wrong. There is no difference. Yeah caffeine is a drug but I think that most people would consider a coffee drinker as somewhat different than an alcoholic, perhaps you’re different.</p>

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<p>They probably wish they had had money for rehab. They probably have broken hearts and many regrets. Hopefully someone tells them that you can’t force a cure on someone who doesn’t want one.</p>