Yes, I do think illegal drugs and alcohol (legal or illegal) are less ubiquitous in Utah than in many other states. There’s a large portion of the population which is at least trying seriously to maintain the appearance of following Church teaching on the subject — their kids aren’t getting alcohol and cocaine and marijuana at home, from their parents (even if some of their parents are secretly using these things elsewhere). Those early starts are a big part of the problem in many states — kids who are already sneaking, or not even having to sneak, alcohol and illegal drugs from their parents’ stashes before they’re out of elementary school. Attending a snooty prep school in the Washington DC area a quarter century, I knew kids in early high school who were bringing school friends home and snorting coke off the coffee table WITH their parents — and this wasn’t “trailer trash”, but well-to-families with influence in the political and/or business worlds — the parents just weren’t particularly worried about word of their drug activities getting out, because it was so widely accepted in their social circles (one classmate of mine who was notorious for this sort of “family values” needed reconstructive surgery on her nose in 11th grade, due to the damage from all the cocaine. The DC ghetto kids were likely to have ingested at least small amounts of alcohol and cocaine and inhaled large amounts of marijuana smoke before they even started elementary school.
In law school in Florida, several fellow students I knew casually would chat openly, in front of people they barely knew (like me), about their cocaine use, meeting their dealer in the parking lot before heading home for the evening, etc. They just didn’t need to worry that this was going to “leak out” and interfere with their admittance to the bar and into employment with major law firms.
OK, I concede the point. However, daughter says she could name a handful of kids from good, solid LDS families who at least dabble in drugs.
I agree, it’s much, much less in the adult culture here. I guess you can’t guarantee that living right will protect your kids.
Heck, I look back to my years in high school in the mid-seventies. Everyone I knew came from a Leave It to Beaver family with a stay-at-home mom. We were so white-bread, faithful church-going America. I don’t think I ever saw an adult drunk before I was 19 or 20. Drugs were unheard of. And I think of all the stuff we got messed up in...yikes!