Monday, November 14, 2016

Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!

I found out on Saturday when I walked in the door after the fishing trip, that there was a death in our community. A boy/man in between the ages of our two sons, whom they had both known well in school, played soccer with and against, played in bands with , and hung around together, had died of a drug overdose. He was the only child of two friends, and he leaves behind a wife and 1 year old son.

I talked to his father today, while I was out walking Skye. After expressing our condolences, we talked a little about the plague of drug abuse. While he had drug problems in the past, we were all pretty positive about his future. He had a good job, and seemed to be settling into domestication gently. His family saw no clue that this was coming. There's no suggestion of suicide, just a poor outcome.

Is there a lesson here? I don't know of one. Drug education (D.A.R.E) is a big thing in the schools here, but the evidences suggests it doesn't have much lasting effect. I would not be surprised if it didn't encourage the more risk taking-students, while discouraging the more malleable, resulting in no net effect. I fear that the schools have become less tolerant of rambunctious male behavior, and tends to push them out. This one certainly dropped out of high-school with behavior problems, although he recently got his GED. But that's all anecdotal. I don't know the cause or the answer.

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