Lansing State Journal: S.D. breath-tests chronic drunken drivers twice daily
It's terribly sensible: assume that chronic drunk drivers are chronic drinkers, and plan with that assumption in mind.
Chronic drinkers or drug users or gamblers or whatever can't be trusted, because they'll do anything for the buzz.
They behave like children; they need to be treated like children.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Detention, foster care considered for truants
adn.com | education : Detention, foster care considered for truants
Rep. Bunde can be forgiven for trying to "crack down" on truant kids. I, for one, appreciate that he's trying to take this on.
I used to work in "dropout prevention." Mainly, we were trying after-school tutoring. I quickly learned that dropout risk had little to do with homework help, but it had everything to do with truancy. No big surprise there: dropping out is just permanent truancy, after all.
Truancy and dropping out had much more to do with the quality of parenting, income level, and reading ability. Naturally, a dropout prevention - or truancy prevention - program can't do anything about the first two factors, and schools are absolutely busting their figurative butts teaching kids to read.
In my experience, and the experience of others, truants and dropouts come from families with one or more of the following characteristics: single-parent, low-income, addiction or mental health disorder, low literacy, lots of kids, low parenting quality.
Naturally, kids from homes with one, or even all, of these factors aren't doomed to dropout. But they are at the highest risk. And if you meet a truant or dropout, and ask them about their home life, you'll hear the factors I listed above.
One of the reasons I'm so fascinated by the social effects of addiction is because it is the "X" factor in any attempt to solve a social problem; no matter how well funded, designed, intended, and staffed a program is, addiction will let the air out of the tires.
And before anyone calls for my head on a platter because I'm dragging single moms through the mud, hold on. I know there are sober, hard working, literate, effective single moms out there. If their children are truant and dropout, I'm sure they are at wits end. But ask those women about the men in their lives, or the home where they came from, and chances are excellent that you will find addiction somewhere.
Rep. Bunde can be forgiven for trying to "crack down" on truant kids. I, for one, appreciate that he's trying to take this on.
I used to work in "dropout prevention." Mainly, we were trying after-school tutoring. I quickly learned that dropout risk had little to do with homework help, but it had everything to do with truancy. No big surprise there: dropping out is just permanent truancy, after all.
Truancy and dropping out had much more to do with the quality of parenting, income level, and reading ability. Naturally, a dropout prevention - or truancy prevention - program can't do anything about the first two factors, and schools are absolutely busting their figurative butts teaching kids to read.
In my experience, and the experience of others, truants and dropouts come from families with one or more of the following characteristics: single-parent, low-income, addiction or mental health disorder, low literacy, lots of kids, low parenting quality.
Naturally, kids from homes with one, or even all, of these factors aren't doomed to dropout. But they are at the highest risk. And if you meet a truant or dropout, and ask them about their home life, you'll hear the factors I listed above.
One of the reasons I'm so fascinated by the social effects of addiction is because it is the "X" factor in any attempt to solve a social problem; no matter how well funded, designed, intended, and staffed a program is, addiction will let the air out of the tires.
And before anyone calls for my head on a platter because I'm dragging single moms through the mud, hold on. I know there are sober, hard working, literate, effective single moms out there. If their children are truant and dropout, I'm sure they are at wits end. But ask those women about the men in their lives, or the home where they came from, and chances are excellent that you will find addiction somewhere.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
What the Poor Are Like
Gerry Charlotte Phelps: Chapter 4: What the Poor Are Like
I found this after Googling "poverty." I live in rural Alaska, which has a high poverty rate and high rates of all other manner of bad stuff. Those of us with jobs and houses and toys have a parlor game in which we wonder aloud "what is to be done," because it is patent that nothing any of us do seems to make a dent in poverty's vicious cycle.
In my experience, I noticed that so many people who are poor grew up poor in a family where there was mental illness or addiction, and the children in those families grew up to become addicted and poor and have more children, and so on.
One still wants to help, to be part of a solution, but one soon becomes either cynical, in denial, burned out, or simply stoic.
So many poor people frustrate me. It's almost like they prefer being poor; it's as though they are unwilling to do the work or make the committment to not be poor. It's as though being poor was Home, and they would fight to keep it.
Naturally, it's more complicated than that; also, I understand that my frustration isn't the point. I'm simply sharing my perspective.
There are many programs and opportunities for anyone from this part of the world to do what it takes to not be poor. All of those programs are optional. Many people choose to not participate. Of those that do, most quit: it's too hard, it's too wierd, it's too uncomfortable to hold a job, go to school, manage a life. So many - most, it seems - are booted out of jobs and programs and schools for drunkenness.
It's fashionable to blame the government for first promoting assimilation, and then fostering a culture of dependance, or to blame the missionaries for a legacy of abuse and shame, or the whalers and traders who brought plague. Or, to blame the poor themselves for not doing their fair share in getting out of poverty.
But, plainly, all of that is true to a degree, and also, none of that really matters to any given neglected kid.
The truth is, none of us know what to do. It is also true that what we're doing now is not working, not at all. Therefore, whatever it is to be done won't be much like whatever it is we're doing now.
I found this after Googling "poverty." I live in rural Alaska, which has a high poverty rate and high rates of all other manner of bad stuff. Those of us with jobs and houses and toys have a parlor game in which we wonder aloud "what is to be done," because it is patent that nothing any of us do seems to make a dent in poverty's vicious cycle.
In my experience, I noticed that so many people who are poor grew up poor in a family where there was mental illness or addiction, and the children in those families grew up to become addicted and poor and have more children, and so on.
One still wants to help, to be part of a solution, but one soon becomes either cynical, in denial, burned out, or simply stoic.
So many poor people frustrate me. It's almost like they prefer being poor; it's as though they are unwilling to do the work or make the committment to not be poor. It's as though being poor was Home, and they would fight to keep it.
Naturally, it's more complicated than that; also, I understand that my frustration isn't the point. I'm simply sharing my perspective.
There are many programs and opportunities for anyone from this part of the world to do what it takes to not be poor. All of those programs are optional. Many people choose to not participate. Of those that do, most quit: it's too hard, it's too wierd, it's too uncomfortable to hold a job, go to school, manage a life. So many - most, it seems - are booted out of jobs and programs and schools for drunkenness.
It's fashionable to blame the government for first promoting assimilation, and then fostering a culture of dependance, or to blame the missionaries for a legacy of abuse and shame, or the whalers and traders who brought plague. Or, to blame the poor themselves for not doing their fair share in getting out of poverty.
But, plainly, all of that is true to a degree, and also, none of that really matters to any given neglected kid.
The truth is, none of us know what to do. It is also true that what we're doing now is not working, not at all. Therefore, whatever it is to be done won't be much like whatever it is we're doing now.
Matthew effect on Wikipedia
Until today, I had never heard of the Matthew effect.
But I've seen it in action, out here in rural Alaska.
For instance, our regional health care provider won grant funding to provide diabetes prevention activities to ameliorate the nation-leading rates of diabetes among Alaska Natives. The program provided many activities, but guess who participated the most? Disadvantaged at-risk youth? No. Active, middle-class, low-risk adults and their healthy kids.
We have after-school programs and art programs and tutoring programs. Who participates? The lowest-risk kids participate the most; the highest-risk the least. Why do the people who need the programs shun them? And why do we keep running them, pretending that we're "makng a difference"?
But I've seen it in action, out here in rural Alaska.
For instance, our regional health care provider won grant funding to provide diabetes prevention activities to ameliorate the nation-leading rates of diabetes among Alaska Natives. The program provided many activities, but guess who participated the most? Disadvantaged at-risk youth? No. Active, middle-class, low-risk adults and their healthy kids.
We have after-school programs and art programs and tutoring programs. Who participates? The lowest-risk kids participate the most; the highest-risk the least. Why do the people who need the programs shun them? And why do we keep running them, pretending that we're "makng a difference"?
Smoking alters brain 'like drugs'
BBC NEWS | Health | Smoking alters brain 'like drugs'
Addiction is addiction: drinking, smoking, gambling, working, eating - it's all different parts of the elephant, to reference an adage.
Addiction is addiction: drinking, smoking, gambling, working, eating - it's all different parts of the elephant, to reference an adage.
Yukon Delta leads AK in sex cases
adn.com | crime : Delta leads state in sex cases
Dysfunction, alcoholism, abuse and neglect seems so common out here in the Bush that I fear they are PREVALENT: not just a problem, but actually LIKELY. In other words, for any given child in rural Alaska, it is more likely than not that the child will grow up in a violent, alcoholic, abusive and/or neglectful environment. Or, put another way, growing up in a severly dysfunctional environment is NORMAL here.
It is also the case that those children will most likely by Inuit.
That means being Inuit in rural Alaska and growing up in a serverly dysfunctional environment are closely related, but it doesn't mean that one causes the other: correlation is not causation.
There are other places in the world where geographically isolated communities of poor people exhibit the same high levels of dysfunction. I'm thinking especially of the Aborigines in Australia. I'll find a link to a recent story I saw on the BBC website. It's also true on Indian reservations in the US and Canada. I bet it's true in very poor urban neighborhoods in the US and in Europe, too.
It's tough to understand the dynamics. It seems to me that there is special combination of lack of resources, a cultural confusion, isolation, and a lack of a stake in the political economy, that, once it mixes with the inevitably toxic effects of addiction, creates a terrible feedback loop of despair and neglect.
I further suspect that these same forces are at work among people who are not "minorities," nor poor, nor isolated; however, the material success of the more fortunate people perhaps mitigates and masks the effects of the despair and neglect.
But if you come out here to rural Alaska, one can witness first-hand the slow motion disintegration of a people, laid bare for all to see; one can earn a decent living participating in the decline, or trying to mitigate its effects; but no one - no one - has any clue whatever on how to rescue them, to rescue US.
What's really wierd is that its basically legal to neglect yourself and your family, and shift the costs of that neglect onto everyone else. Technically, much of that meglect is illegal, but practically it is, because the resources are not available to deal with all but the most extreme cases.
I wonder if perhaps the resources were limitless, would it help? Or is it the resources that are contributing to the vicious cycles? So much money and so many programs have failed to break the vicious cycles - are the programs flawed, or simply underfunded? If, instead of expanding the American empire to control foreign lands of oil and poppies, we instead diverted those resources to rescue our neediest families, to really break the cycles of despair and pain, could it be done? Would all of us eventually reap the rewards of safer towns, smaller prisons, less need for social programs, happier people?
Dysfunction, alcoholism, abuse and neglect seems so common out here in the Bush that I fear they are PREVALENT: not just a problem, but actually LIKELY. In other words, for any given child in rural Alaska, it is more likely than not that the child will grow up in a violent, alcoholic, abusive and/or neglectful environment. Or, put another way, growing up in a severly dysfunctional environment is NORMAL here.
It is also the case that those children will most likely by Inuit.
That means being Inuit in rural Alaska and growing up in a serverly dysfunctional environment are closely related, but it doesn't mean that one causes the other: correlation is not causation.
There are other places in the world where geographically isolated communities of poor people exhibit the same high levels of dysfunction. I'm thinking especially of the Aborigines in Australia. I'll find a link to a recent story I saw on the BBC website. It's also true on Indian reservations in the US and Canada. I bet it's true in very poor urban neighborhoods in the US and in Europe, too.
It's tough to understand the dynamics. It seems to me that there is special combination of lack of resources, a cultural confusion, isolation, and a lack of a stake in the political economy, that, once it mixes with the inevitably toxic effects of addiction, creates a terrible feedback loop of despair and neglect.
I further suspect that these same forces are at work among people who are not "minorities," nor poor, nor isolated; however, the material success of the more fortunate people perhaps mitigates and masks the effects of the despair and neglect.
But if you come out here to rural Alaska, one can witness first-hand the slow motion disintegration of a people, laid bare for all to see; one can earn a decent living participating in the decline, or trying to mitigate its effects; but no one - no one - has any clue whatever on how to rescue them, to rescue US.
What's really wierd is that its basically legal to neglect yourself and your family, and shift the costs of that neglect onto everyone else. Technically, much of that meglect is illegal, but practically it is, because the resources are not available to deal with all but the most extreme cases.
I wonder if perhaps the resources were limitless, would it help? Or is it the resources that are contributing to the vicious cycles? So much money and so many programs have failed to break the vicious cycles - are the programs flawed, or simply underfunded? If, instead of expanding the American empire to control foreign lands of oil and poppies, we instead diverted those resources to rescue our neediest families, to really break the cycles of despair and pain, could it be done? Would all of us eventually reap the rewards of safer towns, smaller prisons, less need for social programs, happier people?
Friday, February 23, 2007
Child abuse linked to alcoholism
adn.com: State regroups on child abuse
Social workers investigating child abuse claims who discover alcoholic parents are stuck: there's few foster families, the state doesn't want to pay for raising the kids, and it's common for the most dysfunction of families to have a very limited network of extended family to count on. So what do you do with the at-risk child? Personally, I'd rather pay for an elaborate and expensive orphange system than a fake war in Iraq. It's true that taking children away from their families really sucks, as do orphanages, but do they suck more than getting abused by drunk parents?
Social workers investigating child abuse claims who discover alcoholic parents are stuck: there's few foster families, the state doesn't want to pay for raising the kids, and it's common for the most dysfunction of families to have a very limited network of extended family to count on. So what do you do with the at-risk child? Personally, I'd rather pay for an elaborate and expensive orphange system than a fake war in Iraq. It's true that taking children away from their families really sucks, as do orphanages, but do they suck more than getting abused by drunk parents?
Friday, February 16, 2007
Drug courts: it's a start
Drug Court judge honored in the Grand Haven (MI) Tribune, is an example of the kind of effort that's really needed to manage the insanity of substance abuse and addiction, especially when it is combined with the utter lack of resources that comes with poverty.
Senseless death? Drugs.
adn.com: Anchorage judge bumps bail after Tix outburst
Allegedly, and naturally, the accused is a meth head.
Allegedly, and naturally, the accused is a meth head.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Drugs beat terrorism
Dobbs: The war within, killing ourselves - CNN.com
Mr. Dobbs makes a good point about the magnitude of drug abuse and addiction. I think he's a bit optimistic about treatment, but that's normal.
The real cost of caring for the nation's addicts, especially the poor ones, is much higher than what we're paying now, which is essentially the minimum payment: just enough to defer disaster, but nothing more. We're screwed either way, but I'd rather be screwed in a scenario with a glimmer of hope versus one with no hope at all. Besides, if we can spend jillions in the Middle East, why could we not make a similar committment here?
Mr. Dobbs makes a good point about the magnitude of drug abuse and addiction. I think he's a bit optimistic about treatment, but that's normal.
The real cost of caring for the nation's addicts, especially the poor ones, is much higher than what we're paying now, which is essentially the minimum payment: just enough to defer disaster, but nothing more. We're screwed either way, but I'd rather be screwed in a scenario with a glimmer of hope versus one with no hope at all. Besides, if we can spend jillions in the Middle East, why could we not make a similar committment here?
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Other things to do with the Iraq war money
Lansing State Journal: Schneider: 'No one seems to be listening' to troubled ex-con
Funding the true costs of a comprehensive support system for our nation's poorest and sickest people would boggle the mind of everyone but the Congressional Budget Office, people who are accustomed to giant numbers.
It's a cost that no one is willing to pay, probably because the losses incurred are almost always borne by other poor and sick people.
The net effect is that being poor and sick in our societies is virtually itself criminal. Yikes.
It's only when the damage spreads beyond the poorest communities and neighborhoods that the rest of us notice and demand action.
I think not fully funding a complete mental health system, including addiction recovery programs and monitored housing is a form of negligence, and the damage done by our poorest and sickest people are eating away at our security. We can either pay now or pay later, when it will be even more expensive. Defering the cost forever, like we do now, is a recipe for disaster, as we see in the news from time to time.
Funding the true costs of a comprehensive support system for our nation's poorest and sickest people would boggle the mind of everyone but the Congressional Budget Office, people who are accustomed to giant numbers.
It's a cost that no one is willing to pay, probably because the losses incurred are almost always borne by other poor and sick people.
The net effect is that being poor and sick in our societies is virtually itself criminal. Yikes.
It's only when the damage spreads beyond the poorest communities and neighborhoods that the rest of us notice and demand action.
I think not fully funding a complete mental health system, including addiction recovery programs and monitored housing is a form of negligence, and the damage done by our poorest and sickest people are eating away at our security. We can either pay now or pay later, when it will be even more expensive. Defering the cost forever, like we do now, is a recipe for disaster, as we see in the news from time to time.
But who will pay?
adn.com | Rural Alaska : Psychology degree has rural-issue application
We need s mall army of mental health professionals out here. But it would be even better if the mental health professionals didn't themselves need mental health professionals. And, we're not the only place that needs such an army, as my next post illustrates.
We need s mall army of mental health professionals out here. But it would be even better if the mental health professionals didn't themselves need mental health professionals. And, we're not the only place that needs such an army, as my next post illustrates.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Surprise: he was high
Man shoots himself, ending police pursuit
When I see stories like this, I always guess that they are related to addiction or intoxication, and I am rarely surprised.
I live a place where virtually every problem is related to addiction or intoxication: suicide, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, the need for foster families, overcrowded jails, homelessness, unemployable people, the cycle of poverty, murders, fires, most injuries, most ambulance calls, virtually all police and court activity, youth getting in trouble, you name it.
After awhile, I wondered if this was also true for the rest of the state, and the rest of the USA. So I scan news stories, guessing that stories about bad things are probably related to some form of addiciton or intoxication. And I'm rarely surprised.
When I see stories like this, I always guess that they are related to addiction or intoxication, and I am rarely surprised.
I live a place where virtually every problem is related to addiction or intoxication: suicide, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, the need for foster families, overcrowded jails, homelessness, unemployable people, the cycle of poverty, murders, fires, most injuries, most ambulance calls, virtually all police and court activity, youth getting in trouble, you name it.
After awhile, I wondered if this was also true for the rest of the state, and the rest of the USA. So I scan news stories, guessing that stories about bad things are probably related to some form of addiciton or intoxication. And I'm rarely surprised.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Extreme example of common problems
No trial for mom whose babies starved to death
The familiar cycle: abuse, self-loathing, depression, addiction: look for it, and it's everywhere, mostly low-grade, but potentially mind-boggling, as in the subject case.
The familiar cycle: abuse, self-loathing, depression, addiction: look for it, and it's everywhere, mostly low-grade, but potentially mind-boggling, as in the subject case.
Birds of a feather
adn.com | crime : Taillight stop leads to bust
This is what most cops do, most of the time: deal with people who are into drugs, intoxicated, or both.
And Joe Citizen wonders why cops can be such surly jerks. YOU deal with drunk & high knuckleheads all day, every day, and see what kind of attitude you develop.
I'm not saying getting high is bad; go ahead. But driving high with guns? That's knucklehead, and that's who cops work with.
Give a cop a break.
And if you are a minority youth being hassled by a cop for no reason at 2 a.m., remember this: taxpayers don't pay cops to be nice or considerate, and us taxpayers apologize for the misunderstanding. But rather than blaming the cop for being a racist meathead, you might also want to thank the other youth who are giving nice kids like you a bad name.
This is what most cops do, most of the time: deal with people who are into drugs, intoxicated, or both.
And Joe Citizen wonders why cops can be such surly jerks. YOU deal with drunk & high knuckleheads all day, every day, and see what kind of attitude you develop.
I'm not saying getting high is bad; go ahead. But driving high with guns? That's knucklehead, and that's who cops work with.
Give a cop a break.
And if you are a minority youth being hassled by a cop for no reason at 2 a.m., remember this: taxpayers don't pay cops to be nice or considerate, and us taxpayers apologize for the misunderstanding. But rather than blaming the cop for being a racist meathead, you might also want to thank the other youth who are giving nice kids like you a bad name.
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