Boredom in the West Fuels Binge Drinking

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/us/02binge.html?ex=1157428800&en=9a991fda80697027&ei=5087%0A

CODY, Wyo. — Barely five people per square mile live on the high, wind-raked ground of Wyoming; the entire state is a small town with long streets, as they say. The open space means room to roam and a sense of frontier freedom.

It also means that on any given night, an unusually high percentage of young people here are drinking alcohol until they vomit, pass out or do something that lands them in jail or nearly gets them killed.

“Had a kid, drunk, flipped his car going 80 miles an hour, and that killed him; and another kid, drunk, smashed his boat up against the rock just a couple months ago, killing two; and then there was this beating after a kegger — they clubbed this kid to death,” said Scott Steward, the sheriff here in Park County, recounting casualties that followed long nights of hard drinking by high school students.

A federal government survey recently confirmed what residents of Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas already knew: people there drink to excess, at very early ages, well above the national average.

[TomInTib]

1. It is all relative...

the farther away you are, the harder you try..

any resident of any remote rural area could tell you all about it.

I know all about it.

[elehhhhna]

2. If Cheney vacationed in my state I'd be drunk all the time, too.

[NuttyFluffers]

3. that's sad... i always wondered what if marijuana (or others) were legal

maybe the kids there wouldn't go so aggro because they'd be more interested in scoring some munchies and trying to figure out how the dubbing on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon synch up. the poor kids there need something else exciting to do, free of binge drinking. if i were a concert promoter i'd love to try outdoor parties w/ no alcohol being served, just some dancing and lots of light shows. boredom and youth do not go well together; it's rather like oil and water.

[Boomer]

4. self-deleted