Drug Use Up for Boomers, Down for Teens

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no.

The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month. It marks the third consecutive yearly increase recorded for that age group by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Hey…life is stressful.

Meanwhile, illicit drug use among young teens went down for the third consecutive year – from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.9 percent in 2005.

You don’t say…

"Rarely have we seen a story like this where this is such an obvious contrast as one generation goes off stage right, and entering stage left is a generation that learned a lesson somehow and they’re doing something very different," said David Murray, special assistant to the director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

You don’t say…

Overall, drug use remained relatively unchanged among Americans age 12 and older in 2005. About 19.7 million Americans reported they had used an illicit drug in the past month, which represented a rise from 7.9 percent to 8.1 percent.

You don’t say… 

The increase was not only due to the boomers, but an increase was also seen among those 18-25, the age category that always ranks highest when it comes to illicit drug use.

You don’t say… 

While drug use went up slightly in ’05, so did alcohol use. Slightly more than half of Americans age 12 and older reported being current drinkers of alcohol. That translates to 126 million people, up from 121 million people the year before.

Uh, huh…  You don’t say…

Meanwhile, tobacco use held steady at about 29.4 percent, even though among youths 12-17, tobacco use did drop from 14.4 percent to 13.1 percent.

So…to recap.  8.1 percent of Americans are using drugs.  Not counting the 30 percent of us who are smoking tobacco, and the more then half of us 12 and older who are drinking alcohol.  The only places in this survey where drug use is down is that 12 to 18 age group.  Which is good…they shouldn’t be doing any of that.  But the rest of us are doing it more.  That includes pot and it isn’t just boomers.  The increase was not only due to the boomers, but an increase was also seen among those 18-25, the age category that always ranks highest when it comes to illicit drug use.  So why are they bellyaching about boomers?  Boomers don’t even rank highest in drug use anymore.

Goddamn republicans just never got over how badly my generation messed up their perfect 1950s world.  But we didn’t do that.  Just look at how their perfect George Bush world is falling apart all on its own.  We found Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, except they didn’t really exist and that’s not why we invaded Iraq, except it was, except it wasn’t, except they did, except they didn’t.  Bill Clinton wouldn’t attack al Qaeda, except when he did the republicans accused him of "wagging the dog", except he really didn’t even though he was wagging the dog when he did and George Bush really took charge, except he was reading The Pet Goat at the time except he was in control, and the Mission was Accomplished just a few weeks after we invaded Iraq which wasn’t involved in 9-11 except it was except it wasn’t and the Mission was Accomplished except we’re putting reservists in their forties back into uniform and sending them to Iraq now because we’re running out of troops, except we have all the troops we need over there and everything is going according to plan except Iraq is falling into civil war now but we’ve brought democracy to Iraq and we’re defeating the enemy we already defeated a couple years ago anyway and every day more Americans die over there and hey let’s go start a war with Iran now too because the Mission has been Accomplished and anyone who says it wasn’t is giving aid and comfort to the enemy we defeated two years ago except we didn’t and now there are more of them. 

When reality becomes a mass hallucination, getting away from it stops looking like such a bad idea.  Some people do drugs to escape reality.  Some people do them because reality has just stopped making sense.  And my generation was only following the example of our elders and all their goddamn booze and tranquilizers.  But we broke the rules by acknowledging what we were doing and that was unforgivable I guess.

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head
Feed your head
Feed your head"

-Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit.