Posted on 02/15/2010 6:44:22 PM PST by ruralvoter
On a Monday in September 2007, Teddy Johnson went to his son's apartment.
Adam Johnson, 22, was in his first year at Marshall University in Huntington. A history major, he played guitar, drums and bass, loved glam bands like the New York Dolls and hosted "The Oscillating Zoo," an eclectic rock show on the university radio station.
Teddy hadn't heard from his son in three days. Letting himself into the apartment, he found Adam lying lifeless on his bed, in the same shirt he'd seen him wearing three days earlier.
The cause of death: a heroin overdose.
"I had no clue," said the elder Johnson, a plumbing contractor in Huntington. "We're a small town. We weren't prepared."
The death was part of a rash of overdoses, 12 of them fatal, that shook Huntington that fall and winter. All were caused by black-tar heroin, a potent, inexpensive, semi-processed form of the drug that has spread across the United States, driven by the entrepreneurial energy and marketing savvy of immigrants from a tiny farming county in Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2451123/posts
Ahh. Those savvy immigrants. Where would we be without them. Backbone of the U S of A, don't you know. I lift the lamp beside the Golden Door and all that sort of thing.
I'm sure they remember like it was yesterday, that sacred day they took the Oath of Citizenship before a smiling federal judge and became full-fledged American Citizens!
Since the first of January there have been five heroin ODs in Dane County Wisconsin....which is far above the norm.
I think Mexico now is becoming a synonym for BAD.
They have no trouble finding full-fledged American citizens to buy their dope.
Unfortunately, if you have kids in school you need to be aware of this. I had 3 clients last year that told me about their kids being involved with Heroin and that’s during discussions about taxes and financial planning. One client told me that her son opted for heroin over pot because it didn’t stay in his system as long and she was having him tested from time to time. This, by the way, is in one of the better school districts in town.
yea, it has nothing to do with a society in the US that tells kids the f’ing guitar is the way to success. With Rock and band culture comes drugs, and then it comes to an end.....
I hate the Mtv music culture that has replaced education in America. I know way too many kids that think “music” is a career. Then they drop out of school after one or two semesters.
Gee I can play guitar, I don’t want a “career”.
Just go down to the getto/bum section and you will find scores of guitar experts......
Good post (only repeating a partial quote from it) and very relevant. I thought I was the only one thinking that same thing!
It's fine to have a hobby pickin' and grinnin' but you must be realistic about your talent (or lack of) and realize that it most likely will NOT be marketable, but it can be enjoyable.
I play banjo and some fiddle but no, I don't think there's anyone that'll PAY to listen to me but my old hound dog "sings" with me if I break out the fiddle. I don't plan on quitting my day job...
A good day job.
. . . my husband is an excellent guitarist on an electric, and quite good on classical. He substitutes in a couple of bands when their guitarist is unable to make it, and he's a regular at a local classical guitar benefit. I play the piano and harpsichord and fool around with the guitar. We both sing in the church choir.
Neither one of us has any illusions about being able to earn a living in music!
We’ve been experincing many young (under 25) deaths here and this sounds just like what I’ve been told they all OD’ed on. Sad very sad.
Should I feel sorry for them when they OD?
Brown heroin is not new. I remember it was in Boulder Colorado in the early seventies. The authorities just use it for hype much like they did with crack cocaine that was around in the early seventies and before that time too. There is an angle coming to institute more laws, I suspect, instead of enforcing the ones they got. I always laugh when the value of drugs in a bust is published too. Most people don’t know don’t care. See some one OD you get them on their feet get them moving keep their heart beating get them to the emergency room quick.
*”I had no clue,” said the elder Johnson, a plumbing contractor in Huntington. “We’re a small town. We weren’t prepared.” *
Your first clue should have been that he loved the NY Dolls...half of them were heroin burnouts or fatalities.
I am sorry to say that this adult young man did this to himself.
I don’t see him as a victim of anyone but his own foolishness.
Since I can be and have been very foolish at times, I say this without rancor. My condolences to his family.
they have a murder about every week in huntington and 99% of all drug dealers they catch or end up dead are from detroit michigan.
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