Alcohol and pot may cause problems, but they're some of the few things in life that actually make problems go away, albeit briefly.
Sometimes it's healthy to forget your problems for a little while. If that means a joint, a 12-pack, a hallelujah or an amen, they all had the same effect and you're better off for it.
Mixing is bad! For me, it's one or the other... but in extreme moderation. However, many people don't have such willpower once they choose to smoke or drink.
Drugs and alcohol are not the reason people are committing suicide they are just the means. Think about it, on the local news today they say that while areas brag about their low unemployment they also mentioned that many families are working 3 or 4 jobs to make ends meet and that the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer. Desperation is why people commit suicide and if they do not have drugs or alcohol they will find another means and one of them will be intentional car crashes hey they family will either get the insurance for the death or the whole family will die. This is sad God help the people in America this country needs someone that actually cares about the people and not about padding their own pockets.
And things will never get better so long as people insist on voting for one of the two major parties. They think voting for the lesser of two evils is better than voting for someone they'd actually like to see in office.
America has only itself to blame for its dysfunctional govt.
First, weed does not cause suicide. It's well known to cause euphoria. That idea being expressed is drug war propaganda brainwashing. Alcohol however is linked to suicide rates going up...always has.
Let me explain this: depressants do not cause depression! Depressants are called that because of their PHYSIOLOGICAL effects on heart rate, blood flow, etc. Depression, which sounds similar but is not related, is a PSYCHOLOGICAL problem. Many stimulants cause depression. Many depressants cause manic behavior (like extreme happiness in bursts).
So get it through your head...taking a depressant does not cause depression necessarily. Weed is less likely to cause depression than coffee.
The only things you are going to grab when high on weed is the frig door and the volume control on the amp...real stoners don't buy all in one stereo (audio/video) components.
I take oxycodone for chronic pain - half a pill works just as good as a whole pill, and just as long - 1 1/2 pills a day. Education and moderation is the key to being able to tolerate drugs for an entire life time. These idiots who take 5 at a time - should...oh crap - I better not death wish...lol.
Nothing lowers your blood pressure faster and more effectively than pot. I have a blood pressure monitor at home - just send me some pot and I'll make a video proving my claims.
My wife quit pot and her depression went through the roof - so much for the myth pot is a depressant. It heightens my senses - ain't that right Mr. Happy.
So when someone with DUI and weedsmoking has taken viagra pulls out a gun while driving a car of a cliff and shoots himself while plunging into the depth, in what statistic this guy is going to show up?
People that have been molested as a child grow up to be very bitter young adults. If they don't seek help it could lead them down a very sad path. Killing them-selves may be a way out for them.
How can this be? Perhaps if we gave more money, and the labor it represents, to the government? Let's pick a hard line approach and get on with the worker's paradise or the volkenreich or whatever. Without centralized control of resources and behavior we're going to continue to have this pesky desire to do away with oneself. We need a paradise that only one hive mind can cure.
I think you've stumbled on it--suicide is really a statement about who owns the means of production. Tell that to the emo kids, and they won't think it's romantic anymore!
Actually in 1897 David Émile Durkheim wrote Suicide, a book about the subject. He exactly identified its cause when widespread. It's the opposite of both of your assumptions.
He coined the phrase used now in sociology, anomie. Anomie is a state of lawlessness and normlessness. It occurs in one of two ways:
1. There are no rules in society or social mores (murder and rape are as legal as eating a donut).
2. There are so many rules people feel they have no choices (authoritarian government).
Anomie is the result more usually of the latter...too much government. The more rules, the more robotic people feel, the more likely they are to kill others or themselves. Anomie is contrasted with anarchy. Anarchy is voluntary government, and as such it is very limited where individual participants wish it to be limited. Where anomie can describe alienation due to complexity in mass society, like Division of Labor (specialization, which is necessary for a society to produce enough to meet basic needs in modernity), anarchy can describe panarchist synthesis (all economic preferences existing simultaneously in the same free territory) and panarchism (competitive legal providers of dispute resolution via contracts in the same geographic area) and therefore inclusion and social bonds based on mutual consent.
Durkheim was a Marxist, believe it or not. He stumbled upon the reason why Marxism would later meet with failure. The only way to enforce theft (taking and redistributing the means of production to workers who did not own them originally) was to have a massive state apparatus. That massive state would always lead to more rules than human psyche was comfortable with, as we all tend toward a preference for autonomy (even if we wish others didn't have it, ironically). This leads to more and more anomie: lawlessness, normlessness, murder, and suicide. China (communist - to a degree still) has always had larger suicide RATES than capitalist nations. The more free market they become, the lower the suicide and murder rates go (you must include government murder in those stats for full accuracy, logically). The more STATE socialist the USA becomes, the more suicide (and murder, once you consider how many people our government is killing here and abroad).
Regardless of economics, however, it is clear that as you approach anomie, you approach more suicide (and usually murder). This has less to do with the economics than the state. Compulsory governments (social contracts that are not EXPLICITLY consented to) have higher suicide rates than stateless societies of the past (please look up suicide research in stateless societies...it's nearly zero). See, it isn't socialism, communism, or free markets that cause suicide...it's the state; ie. STATE capitalism, STATE communism, and STATE socialism. As they leave behind the larval stage of minarchy and head toward gigantic governments of coercion and control filled with rules (and they ALWAYS do), the population heads for anomie.
Anarchy prevents anomie. Overthrowing one state and replacing it with another state does not prevent anomie...it guarantees it.
In chaos theory scientists have identified what causes every closed system to fall to what they call "anarchy" (they are mislableing anomie here). To correct their terminology, we will refer to "chaos" as anomie, since anarchy has laws (competitive) and government (voluntary), while anomie is lawless, normless, violent, and chaotic. What causes closed systems to fall to anomie every single time they are set up is barriers to entry and then the uncontrollable energy needed to feed such a closed system. Eventually such energy needs to keep the system of control going fails. This happens in the human body, computer systems, etc. All will hit a point in the closed system that requires more energy than can be fed in to the system in order to maintain it. This inability to meet energy consumption needs leads to a breakdown of vital systems, and in biology...death.
The state has a life cycle. It always dies because it is a closed system. It becomes closed when it creates barriers to entry into the system on market demanded services like law, defense, roads, welfare, etc. If it didn't create these coerced monopolies of market demanded services, we'd have an open and perpetual system. The only way to destroy such an open system is to close it. Ancient people who lived in statelessness didn't know this...but we do.
So don't think increased suicide is caused by economics...it's caused by STATE control increasing or finally collapsing and no voluntary government being in its place. Don't think our wars for energy resources are over "terrorism" where there just happens to be those needed resources...those wars are over energy needed to keep the system intact. They either need more energy, or to limit complexity (technology would need to be banned, and/or population limited). If they are not willing (or able) to limit complexity, they simply must sonsume more resources for energy. Statism is highly expensive in terms of resource allocation. Don't think the state can save you...it's statelessness that is your savior.
Of 200,000 years of human civilization (roads, law, defense, trade, etc.), only 3% (the past 6,000 years) has been in statism. The other 194,000 years was stateless. The state did not invent property rights, law, defense, roads, or trade. It did not cause the greatest innovations and advances in our time...it in fact hindered them until it decided to fund them personally in order to cure the disease it created. The state is a failed system, and its time to end this blight on human civilization in favor of voluntary government (panarchy). Only then will you keep suicide rates low, murder rates low, and sociopaths from running societies built on coercive hierarchies they rise to the top of so easily.
Illegitimate (compulsory) authority on INNOCENT people causes anomie and its symptoms; rampant murder and suicide. Whether that compulsory authority is a large state or a lack of any norms that leads to the coercions of dog-eat-dog, there is no liberty or autonomy in anomie.
That is very true and insightful article that you wrote. I see this in myself and a lot of other people by their comments and actions. I see this in the government which is growing and taking away liberties and freedoms. I see it in the workplace and on the street.
Thank you for your comment. Sincerely, Sonya Jones aka Numb3rTech
And yet, there must be a weak-minded individual to manifest that effect. By "weak-minded" I mean a person who isn't capable of thinking for themselves.
From early teen years, I've thought the entire concept of governments is bizarre. The idea that some human beings would group together and appoint themselves the arbitrator of rules for other human beings is just plain weird. These groups will actually murder you or put you in a cage if you dare to defy or even just ignore them! And hardly anyone thinks this is strange.
I also think geographical boundaries and claiming to own part of the earth is weird.
Now, a large percentage of people would agree that my thoughts on the subject are strange. But not buying into the paradigm keeps me strong. I pay a price for it, but the price sure isn't self-destruction.
The core of the problem isn't government, and the solution won't be found there either. The core of the problem is that most people cannot resist early-childhood brainwashing.
Well, I think all of the above is total political hogwash. People who commit suicide are not all weak minded. People who commit suicide feel hopeless in their situation and cannot change it. People who commit suidide usually do not have much of a support group or people who love them and are there for the person to talk to. People who commit suicide can be strong as rocks and carry the weight of the world and one day, just say, "I'm not doing this anymore". I know I did that and decided to check out and let some other poor masochist take on my load. I'm extremely strong minded, capable and resourceful. But that day, that moment, I wanted out.
It had zero to do with politics, it had to do with family dynamics, finances and a life time of taking care of others. After the attempt failed [Thank God] I was diagnosed as bipolar and got help and meds and 10 years later, I am back to carrying the world on my shoulders and being a responsible human being who cares for others.
If you feel that suicide is the only way out, just think, that if you die today, next week or next year something wonderful could happen that you missed. In my case, it was my 3 wonderful grandaughters.
You hit the nail on the head, hopelessness, look around us , the world is falling apart, I put my hope in Jesus Christ son of the living God, with God there is hope, there is salvation. He will never let you down.
If your life is so screwed up that you sign up with the employer of last resort to go kill people in another country, chances are your life will still be screwed up a couple of years later. You'll just be better at gun play.
Besides, if being miserable with no hope were the cause of suicide, most females throughout history would've jumped off a tall building.
Depends on if the suiciders were productive members of society or Democrats... if they were workers then the amount of money taken from the rest of us to support the leeches just increased.
But relative to most people on earth, and especially compared to many people in regions where suicide is almost unknown, we have incredibly plush lives. We also get paid more, eat more, and do easier work than people did 50 years ago, and live relatively longer and healthier (exception of obesity) lives, but that doesn't matter to GBR, because life is too hard.
I'm torn between GBR's "life is harder now than it was in the 1960s (especially if you're of African heritage, right!)" explanation for suicide, and workers owning the means of production, from juveniledelinquent.
Yes, relax compared to many people in other parts of the world, Americans do have it easier. But we don't actually really see those people, we do see those who have prospered in our own country (making those of us who haven't feel worse by comparison) and we know what we had before. The future also seems very bleak, thanks to the prospering Republicans who screwed the economy (and their fellow Americans). No wonder people have no desire to go on.
I do not see it as being caused by either party, Republican or Democrat. Mr. President Obama has some of the wealthiest backers and they are prosperous Democrats. I firmly believe it more about people with power over others in both parties.
I see a need for smaller government, better teachers, better parenting of children and more accountability of where our tax monies are spent. Companies and corporations should become more responsible on their own, and not have to have every little thing mandated to them.
Yes, the future seems bleak. It does to me. I was injured on the job due to lack of proper equipment to work with and I should have quit that job before I got injured and disabled. 20/20 hindsight. I was promised the proper equipment when I took the job and after a fast management change, I never received the proper equipment. I am going to try and make sure this does not happen to anyone else working for that company.
Thank you for your comment. I even got to vent some. Numb3rTech
I don't think it's so much about the things we have here, or even the hard economic times. I think these things are added stressors, but there's always stress.
I think the difference is that Americans have lost their sense of community. We live in a ME, ME, ME world. Neighbors don't watch out for neighbors anymore. We don't talk on the phone, we text. We hide behind our computers to be nasty on message boards. Truthfully, if you were down and out and didn't have a sense of community, what would stop you? Or, if you were suffering from depression and felt the stigma was too much to bear, and no one was there to support you, wouldn't you be in serious jeopardy?
As the homelessness, mental illness, alcoholism and other adjustment problems start affecting more and more veterans...
As the government cuts back more and more on helping veterans...
As the public realizes more and more that the present wars solve nothing, create more monumental problems, destroy more lives and only serve to siphon more billions into the pockets of the evil Military Industrial Complex...
...the majority of Americans will get fed up and want no more wars and realize peace and diplomacy are the way to prosperity and a happy, healthy populace...
...that is until the sword rattlers get the public all worked up by straw dogs and problems their meddling has created and they happily send their kids off to "fight for freedom" or some other nonsensical catch phrase.
President Eisenhower warned us, too bad most people didn't listen.
We should never cut back on helping our veterans. The general public should be doing more for them also on their own.
The United States does need to keep a strong military. Both defense and attack. It took way too long to find and eliminate Osama Bin Laden. That should have been accomplished in less than a year if we had to invade and take the country harboring him apart piece by piece. And we should not have to pay countries that do not assist with combating terrorist attacks.
We do need and want a populace that is healthy, happy and prosperous, and able to live safely without worrying about their future or wars. We have the technology. We have the people willing to work. It does not need to be done by bigger government, but by a government that is efficient with people and money. That will lead to a secure future.
The spike is due to "opiods" oxycontin,roxys,zanex, addderol, on and on. Let me tell there is a whole new generation of "pill heads" that are constantly at risk of dying. These are mostly younger late teens,twenties that are causing the spike. To give you a gauge of the progression of this problem, I will tell you about ten years ago and before, all you would see at the Methadone clinics were older people, mostly Vets coming off or who have been off heroine for years.
Now when you go by the Methadone clinic it looks like a high school or college, because so many youths have became addicted and methadone is what they use to come off the opiods. I blame "big pharma" and lack of integrity by doctors, whom easily prescribed these drugs. Now there are more stringent rules in place to combat this, but once again, to little too late.
The sooner this problem is corrected, the sooner the suicide rate will drop. Hopefully this the peak and will start to go down from now on.
@ mickey;
Many in this uptick in suicide are military veterans
This would be hard to classify, but when you take to many pills knowing you could die from it ,could be considered suicide. The depression that comes after you are off the pills when the brain does not naturally produce endorphines like it is supposed to Icould be more where the suicide comes in.
and just how many people are undertreated for pain by doctors and get hold of enough pills to end the cycle of abuse by the medical field? It is HELL to be in pain and no doctor wants to risk being flagged by the DEA for giving an adequate dose. And that "dose" is determined by a group of people (let's say 2000) and the average of those people becomes the new "norm" for everyone! I now have "normal" BP which is for me Very High BP. Doctors don't seem to "get" that. So I self treat - with magnesium daily. What is a person to do in acute chronic pain situations (like Cluster Headaches) when they can't find a pain doctor willing to treat them? Hmmmm.... well maybe suicide is the answer? Washington State Legislators (not physicians) have passed a law that someone with chronic pain cannot be treated in the ER with narcotics or the doctor and nurses attending will be charged. Yet pain doctors are few and far between and booked solid. Yeah, let's just get some of that Obamacare since our gov't does such a great job with medicare and our budget already. God help us.
It is easy to get medications that conflict with other medications. I had true hell getting the medications I actually needed. I have to go to a different doctors for specific problems and they all have a list of the medications that are prescribed for me, there is still a problem with conflicting medications. I have to look them up on the internet myself before I even touch them and then make a decision. Even though I only go to one pharmacy, they have not caught on to the interactions of the different medications I take so I have had to quit several and adjust living style and diet. After three years, I finally got one of my needed medications prescribed yesterday. I had to drop other medications due to the conflicts listed and may add them back one at a time or not, depending upon how my body reacts.
It is a shame that this is the way the world works. I am on some heavy duty narcotics due to unrepairable spinal damage caused by lack of proper equipment for the job that I had. Fortunately, I do not have to take them 100% of the time and can stand the pain for a bit of time. One thing I am doing is making sure it does not happen to anyone else that took over my job. I am unable to sit, stand, walk, lift, etc. for long and can not maintain concentration due to the spine problems coupled with the medication.
I am not complaining for myself. I think people should be able to get the medications they need a lot easier. I also see why doctors are so leery about writing prescriptions. It is due to society in general along with ignorance of self responsibility. There are people that will blindly take any medication prescribed to them. It is easy to die from medications. Even when there is not a true overdose.
Heroin is enjoying a new surge, thus your line of young people. There are a large number of older people that are becoming prescription junkies. Oxycontin is the drug of choice of the doctors).
The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,[5] with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths.[6]
Foreclosures..Bank/Wall Street planned scam causes suicides
PTSD & Vets...Wars to expand for our Markets (not the excuse of terrorists, thats not why we are crawling all over the MiddleEast) (Research all the American Business going on everywhere but here. You'll be astounded)Vet suicides caused by Free Market
Unemployed...suicides caused by Massive Corporation Outsourcing and getting worse. No matter what you give them, they will never willingly leave getting it all for free.
Senior suicides..people who just can't keep up with cost of living on SSI.
Mothers & fathers killing children first and then themselves because life has become too expensive and we have no choices, no hope, no chance.
Almost 99 % of people in India today do not own a car. Thus the people of India do not feel depressed or suicidal because most people there are no better off than you are. You do not miss what you never had in the first place.
In America, a majority of people have their own car. Here in America, if you do not own a car, you would feel that you were a failure because almost every one else does have their own car.
It's all a matter of persons perspective that creates suicidal tendencies. Here, there are many haves and in India there are almost all have nots.
Thus the people of India do not feel depressed or suicidal because most people there are no better off than you are. You do not miss what you never had in the first place.
Isn't that the premise behind Obamas Trickle Up Poverty?
lfh11, I agree with you to an extent, but the material comfort of having a car, or even access to a bus and not having to walk everywhere independently benefits your life greatly and should make you much happier regardless of what others have or think.
When it comes down to it, suicide is caused by weakness (bad and avoidable), and generally combined with mental illness (less avoidable).
Where suicide is seen as a tragedy, more suicides occur.
Where suicide-when a healthy, younger person does it-is seen as something a weak moron does, there are few suicides.
Japanese society's attitude toward suicide has been termed "tolerant," and in many occasions suicide is seen as a morally responsible action.[9]...
Japan has been the suicide capital of the World for the last decade...
In 2009, the number of suicides rose 2 percent to 32,845 exceeding 30,000 for the twelfth straight year and equating to nearly 26 suicides per 100,000 people.[10] In comparison, the UK rate is about 9 per 100,000, and the US rate around 11 per 100,000.[4]
In 2009, the number of suicides among men rose 641 to 23,472 (with those age 40–69 accounting for 40.8% of the total). Suicide was the leading cause of death among men age 20–44.[4][5]
They are now experiencing another surge in suicides, due to lack of JOBS, after their 1990's meltdown. Just like the USA is currently experiencing...
This life is bad at best. Knowing that there is a better life in the hereafter gives us the courage to continue until the end. As God has been removed from America, fewer people know Him and have the hope He gives. They see no hope of anything better, so they kill themselves. Liberals want "freedom" from a God who requires constraint, but that freedom comes with a severe price- hopelessness.
That's a healthy viewpoint to have and to hold. You get to listen to a minister tell you "it's all ok, it's all lions and lambs and stuff now".
I think it takes true strength of character to face the blackness and live a noble life, leave the world a better place, and hope there's a heaven but not expect it. That's why your decisions have to count on earth.
Faith in eternal paradise so what happens on earth doesn't matter is a cop out. A d@mn healthy one. But a cop out nonetheless. If completely believed, then whatever happens on the lil earth is just hunky-dory, a tiny blip in your eternal awesomeness.
Faith, at its end, absolves you of the heavy and terrifying responsibility to live a noble and meaningful life.
Suicidal thinking and action have long been considered proof of mental illness. But now if normal people are killing themselves because they just can't make a go of anything, can't get work or aid or an assist from friend/family/good Samaritan, will suicide cease to be considered evidence of mental illness, and just be chalked up to a man's giving up against insurmountable odds, or his perception of them?
Many things considered Mental Illness are not that at all. Only in America and Big Parm will make you a pill for all it. Lots of Mental illness is a cop out for a system which Does Not work for regular people.
Maybe if there had not been so many outsourced jobs to other countries people would be more cheerful and not unemployed which leads to suicide. If you want to put a dent in the deficit, then tax the hell out of these companies that make it on foreign land soils only to sell it here. Raise the rate to 50% and they will either pay or bring back the jobs. The GOP has no concern for the welfare of Americans, it is only concerned with profit for themselves, shareholders, and the corporations. Our country is in a downslide for many things which include jobs, education, healthcare, and morals when it comes to thinking and helping others. The me mentality is not just for the youngest generations, it is also in the House and Senate in seats occupied by the GOP. Suicide is not even tracked for anti-depressants that is highly likely in the higher numbers too. These are powerful mind altering drugs. Do a google search on murderers like the Columbine shooting and others. These killers were on the anti-depressants for a short time, not monitored, and they endanger others and themselves. The anti-depressant market needs to have tighter controls and oversight to reduce the number of suicides especially for those first on the medication. One hour they can look normal and acting fine and the next they become suicidal and back in their dark hole. There is no good suicide, but the truly bad ones are when they kill others first then themselves. At least just do yourself and leave everyone else alone. And for those that whisper and avoid the survivors of suicides in a family, shame on you, because this could happen to you someday and then everyone is pointing and talking behind your back too. Suicide eventually touches every family somehow, if not directly, then indirectly through acquaintences.
Apple's supplier, FoxConn, had a lot more suicides until they put netting around the building to catch the jumpers before they hit the ground and died. Some countries do have suicide epidemics.
Wow, that's surprising. The driving age has been creeping up to 18 in places, and if It's not 18, massive restrictions have been put in place, ensuring inexperienced drivers don't get experience before they are 18. That also means, HOLY CRAP, a teen in need just can't visit his/her friend any more to talk to them because it might be past government issued driving curfew. Remember that parents? I sure as hell don't. Yes I'm being extreme, but this is just the tip of the iceberg we created with the bubblewrapped, nanny state we created for our kids. Buckle up. It's going to get worse as more laws are passed. If you're stupid enough to think it's only going to affect your kids, you're in for it. You're already getting tickets because the government has decided you're not smart enough to decide whether or not you should wear a seat belt. Have fun... Big brother is just looking out for you.
Bull crap! Suicide statistics are always scewed to include accidental self-inflicted overdoses, unexplained motor vehicle deaths, drownings, shootings, and just about every kind of demise you can imagine of a person that is troubled and ISN'T a homocide. The higher the "perceived" suicide rate, the greater the call for more mental health people and cottage industry agencies designed to "heal" all of us that are so impaired. In reality, accidental deaths out-number suicides about 3 to 1! AC Robertson - go back to your kool aid and funny weed, never in the history of this nation were 55 people killing themselves every day with a firearm, getting murdered - maybe!
JP: how do you KNOW there aren't 55 people killing themselves each day? It works out to be only about 1 out of every 5.6 million people per day. Considering the lowest 40% of Americans owned 0.9% of the country pre-Reagan, own 0.2% now, and the far-right still complains about "redistribution", is there any wonder there's a lot of despair? Of advanced nations, we are by far the highest in income inequality.
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Thanks Alcohol & Pot for being depressants & causing suicide!
thanks religion and war mongering politicians for being more responsible for deaths...think i'll smoke a joint and kill a beer...
plain bob - keep your hand off the firearms while you're high & drunk, don't want one less bob in the World.
If anyone shoots them self while they're high on pot... It's ONLY because they too damn high to realize that the safety was off.
Alcohol and pot may cause problems, but they're some of the few things in life that actually make problems go away, albeit briefly.
Sometimes it's healthy to forget your problems for a little while. If that means a joint, a 12-pack, a hallelujah or an amen, they all had the same effect and you're better off for it.
Mixing is bad! For me, it's one or the other... but in extreme moderation. However, many people don't have such willpower once they choose to smoke or drink.
Pot makes me happy!
Drugs and alcohol are not the reason people are committing suicide they are just the means. Think about it, on the local news today they say that while areas brag about their low unemployment they also mentioned that many families are working 3 or 4 jobs to make ends meet and that the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer. Desperation is why people commit suicide and if they do not have drugs or alcohol they will find another means and one of them will be intentional car crashes hey they family will either get the insurance for the death or the whole family will die. This is sad God help the people in America this country needs someone that actually cares about the people and not about padding their own pockets.
Depression is the cause of the majority of suicides.
The government and its policies are the most depressing things I know of.
Let me amend that, the morons that vote for the politicians are due equal billing.
Obama is the leader of the free world. No hope. Nothing to look forward to. Democrats are idiots.
We are going the wrong way on a bad road and our choices are obama or his clone.
That would depress polly anna.
And things will never get better so long as people insist on voting for one of the two major parties. They think voting for the lesser of two evils is better than voting for someone they'd actually like to see in office.
America has only itself to blame for its dysfunctional govt.
First, weed does not cause suicide. It's well known to cause euphoria. That idea being expressed is drug war propaganda brainwashing. Alcohol however is linked to suicide rates going up...always has.
Let me explain this: depressants do not cause depression! Depressants are called that because of their PHYSIOLOGICAL effects on heart rate, blood flow, etc. Depression, which sounds similar but is not related, is a PSYCHOLOGICAL problem. Many stimulants cause depression. Many depressants cause manic behavior (like extreme happiness in bursts).
So get it through your head...taking a depressant does not cause depression necessarily. Weed is less likely to cause depression than coffee.
@ I Wonder...as an anarchist, your comments make me less depressed...lol.
@Francle..."leader of the free world" is an oxymoron.
The only things you are going to grab when high on weed is the frig door and the volume control on the amp...real stoners don't buy all in one stereo (audio/video) components.
I take oxycodone for chronic pain - half a pill works just as good as a whole pill, and just as long - 1 1/2 pills a day. Education and moderation is the key to being able to tolerate drugs for an entire life time. These idiots who take 5 at a time - should...oh crap - I better not death wish...lol.
PatchesPals hugs also make kornfed happy.
Nothing lowers your blood pressure faster and more effectively than pot. I have a blood pressure monitor at home - just send me some pot and I'll make a video proving my claims.
My wife quit pot and her depression went through the roof - so much for the myth pot is a depressant. It heightens my senses - ain't that right Mr. Happy.
I can't believe the comments here ! I'm going to kill myself laughing.
I think Chriswanker is wrong...the only reason to kill oneself while high on pot is because you ran out of munchies!!! lol ;)
So when someone with DUI and weedsmoking has taken viagra pulls out a gun while driving a car of a cliff and shoots himself while plunging into the depth, in what statistic this guy is going to show up?
Was this someone texting while driving also?
1, 3 deleted, really cheap political derails. There's a politics section.
People that have been molested as a child grow up to be very bitter young adults. If they don't seek help it could lead them down a very sad path. Killing them-selves may be a way out for them.
How can this be? Perhaps if we gave more money, and the labor it represents, to the government? Let's pick a hard line approach and get on with the worker's paradise or the volkenreich or whatever. Without centralized control of resources and behavior we're going to continue to have this pesky desire to do away with oneself. We need a paradise that only one hive mind can cure.
Or maybe that's the problem?
I think you've stumbled on it--suicide is really a statement about who owns the means of production. Tell that to the emo kids, and they won't think it's romantic anymore!
Actually in 1897 David Émile Durkheim wrote Suicide, a book about the subject. He exactly identified its cause when widespread. It's the opposite of both of your assumptions.
He coined the phrase used now in sociology, anomie. Anomie is a state of lawlessness and normlessness. It occurs in one of two ways:
1. There are no rules in society or social mores (murder and rape are as legal as eating a donut).
2. There are so many rules people feel they have no choices (authoritarian government).
Anomie is the result more usually of the latter...too much government. The more rules, the more robotic people feel, the more likely they are to kill others or themselves. Anomie is contrasted with anarchy. Anarchy is voluntary government, and as such it is very limited where individual participants wish it to be limited. Where anomie can describe alienation due to complexity in mass society, like Division of Labor (specialization, which is necessary for a society to produce enough to meet basic needs in modernity), anarchy can describe panarchist synthesis (all economic preferences existing simultaneously in the same free territory) and panarchism (competitive legal providers of dispute resolution via contracts in the same geographic area) and therefore inclusion and social bonds based on mutual consent.
Durkheim was a Marxist, believe it or not. He stumbled upon the reason why Marxism would later meet with failure. The only way to enforce theft (taking and redistributing the means of production to workers who did not own them originally) was to have a massive state apparatus. That massive state would always lead to more rules than human psyche was comfortable with, as we all tend toward a preference for autonomy (even if we wish others didn't have it, ironically). This leads to more and more anomie: lawlessness, normlessness, murder, and suicide. China (communist - to a degree still) has always had larger suicide RATES than capitalist nations. The more free market they become, the lower the suicide and murder rates go (you must include government murder in those stats for full accuracy, logically). The more STATE socialist the USA becomes, the more suicide (and murder, once you consider how many people our government is killing here and abroad).
Regardless of economics, however, it is clear that as you approach anomie, you approach more suicide (and usually murder). This has less to do with the economics than the state. Compulsory governments (social contracts that are not EXPLICITLY consented to) have higher suicide rates than stateless societies of the past (please look up suicide research in stateless societies...it's nearly zero). See, it isn't socialism, communism, or free markets that cause suicide...it's the state; ie. STATE capitalism, STATE communism, and STATE socialism. As they leave behind the larval stage of minarchy and head toward gigantic governments of coercion and control filled with rules (and they ALWAYS do), the population heads for anomie.
Anarchy prevents anomie. Overthrowing one state and replacing it with another state does not prevent anomie...it guarantees it.
In chaos theory scientists have identified what causes every closed system to fall to what they call "anarchy" (they are mislableing anomie here). To correct their terminology, we will refer to "chaos" as anomie, since anarchy has laws (competitive) and government (voluntary), while anomie is lawless, normless, violent, and chaotic. What causes closed systems to fall to anomie every single time they are set up is barriers to entry and then the uncontrollable energy needed to feed such a closed system. Eventually such energy needs to keep the system of control going fails. This happens in the human body, computer systems, etc. All will hit a point in the closed system that requires more energy than can be fed in to the system in order to maintain it. This inability to meet energy consumption needs leads to a breakdown of vital systems, and in biology...death.
The state has a life cycle. It always dies because it is a closed system. It becomes closed when it creates barriers to entry into the system on market demanded services like law, defense, roads, welfare, etc. If it didn't create these coerced monopolies of market demanded services, we'd have an open and perpetual system. The only way to destroy such an open system is to close it. Ancient people who lived in statelessness didn't know this...but we do.
So don't think increased suicide is caused by economics...it's caused by STATE control increasing or finally collapsing and no voluntary government being in its place. Don't think our wars for energy resources are over "terrorism" where there just happens to be those needed resources...those wars are over energy needed to keep the system intact. They either need more energy, or to limit complexity (technology would need to be banned, and/or population limited). If they are not willing (or able) to limit complexity, they simply must sonsume more resources for energy. Statism is highly expensive in terms of resource allocation. Don't think the state can save you...it's statelessness that is your savior.
Of 200,000 years of human civilization (roads, law, defense, trade, etc.), only 3% (the past 6,000 years) has been in statism. The other 194,000 years was stateless. The state did not invent property rights, law, defense, roads, or trade. It did not cause the greatest innovations and advances in our time...it in fact hindered them until it decided to fund them personally in order to cure the disease it created. The state is a failed system, and its time to end this blight on human civilization in favor of voluntary government (panarchy). Only then will you keep suicide rates low, murder rates low, and sociopaths from running societies built on coercive hierarchies they rise to the top of so easily.
Illegitimate (compulsory) authority on INNOCENT people causes anomie and its symptoms; rampant murder and suicide. Whether that compulsory authority is a large state or a lack of any norms that leads to the coercions of dog-eat-dog, there is no liberty or autonomy in anomie.
@ ProIndividual-3906907
That is very true and insightful article that you wrote. I see this in myself and a lot of other people by their comments and actions. I see this in the government which is growing and taking away liberties and freedoms. I see it in the workplace and on the street.
Thank you for your comment. Sincerely, Sonya Jones aka Numb3rTech
How many Muslims kill themselves (other than for religious purposes) ?
ProIndividual--
Interesting post. Thank you.
And yet, there must be a weak-minded individual to manifest that effect. By "weak-minded" I mean a person who isn't capable of thinking for themselves.
From early teen years, I've thought the entire concept of governments is bizarre. The idea that some human beings would group together and appoint themselves the arbitrator of rules for other human beings is just plain weird. These groups will actually murder you or put you in a cage if you dare to defy or even just ignore them! And hardly anyone thinks this is strange.
I also think geographical boundaries and claiming to own part of the earth is weird.
Now, a large percentage of people would agree that my thoughts on the subject are strange. But not buying into the paradigm keeps me strong. I pay a price for it, but the price sure isn't self-destruction.
The core of the problem isn't government, and the solution won't be found there either. The core of the problem is that most people cannot resist early-childhood brainwashing.
jw101 ... not nearly enough.
Well, I think all of the above is total political hogwash. People who commit suicide are not all weak minded. People who commit suicide feel hopeless in their situation and cannot change it. People who commit suidide usually do not have much of a support group or people who love them and are there for the person to talk to. People who commit suicide can be strong as rocks and carry the weight of the world and one day, just say, "I'm not doing this anymore". I know I did that and decided to check out and let some other poor masochist take on my load. I'm extremely strong minded, capable and resourceful. But that day, that moment, I wanted out.
It had zero to do with politics, it had to do with family dynamics, finances and a life time of taking care of others. After the attempt failed [Thank God] I was diagnosed as bipolar and got help and meds and 10 years later, I am back to carrying the world on my shoulders and being a responsible human being who cares for others.
If you feel that suicide is the only way out, just think, that if you die today, next week or next year something wonderful could happen that you missed. In my case, it was my 3 wonderful grandaughters.
well with the way the world is now people see no hope.
well with the way the world is now people see no hope and NO JOBS.
You hit the nail on the head, hopelessness, look around us , the world is falling apart, I put my hope in Jesus Christ son of the living God, with God there is hope, there is salvation. He will never let you down.
It's why suicide prevention must be on speed-dial... :-)
Mickey-1983943 - #9
Very True and distressing... sigh
Rixar13,
If your life is so screwed up that you sign up with the employer of last resort to go kill people in another country, chances are your life will still be screwed up a couple of years later. You'll just be better at gun play.
Besides, if being miserable with no hope were the cause of suicide, most females throughout history would've jumped off a tall building.
Well, in 2002, we had Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope. In 2012, we have no Jobs, no Cash, and no Hope.
Must be all of those concusssions from football. Have their heads examined!
More for the rest of us?
The size of the pie IS shrinking, after all.
Come to think of it, maybe that explains all the suicides.
More for the rest of us!
In a closed perfectly closed economic model, you'd be correct. This just completely explains suicides in N Korea.
popeye - "More for the rest of us!"
Depends on if the suiciders were productive members of society or Democrats... if they were workers then the amount of money taken from the rest of us to support the leeches just increased.
Can you blame people? We now work more, get paid less and sleep less then we did 50 years ago. There is no real mystery here.
But relative to most people on earth, and especially compared to many people in regions where suicide is almost unknown, we have incredibly plush lives. We also get paid more, eat more, and do easier work than people did 50 years ago, and live relatively longer and healthier (exception of obesity) lives, but that doesn't matter to GBR, because life is too hard.
I'm torn between GBR's "life is harder now than it was in the 1960s (especially if you're of African heritage, right!)" explanation for suicide, and workers owning the means of production, from juveniledelinquent.
Yes, relax compared to many people in other parts of the world, Americans do have it easier. But we don't actually really see those people, we do see those who have prospered in our own country (making those of us who haven't feel worse by comparison) and we know what we had before. The future also seems very bleak, thanks to the prospering Republicans who screwed the economy (and their fellow Americans). No wonder people have no desire to go on.
@ homesick yank
I do not see it as being caused by either party, Republican or Democrat. Mr. President Obama has some of the wealthiest backers and they are prosperous Democrats. I firmly believe it more about people with power over others in both parties.
I see a need for smaller government, better teachers, better parenting of children and more accountability of where our tax monies are spent. Companies and corporations should become more responsible on their own, and not have to have every little thing mandated to them.
Yes, the future seems bleak. It does to me. I was injured on the job due to lack of proper equipment to work with and I should have quit that job before I got injured and disabled. 20/20 hindsight. I was promised the proper equipment when I took the job and after a fast management change, I never received the proper equipment. I am going to try and make sure this does not happen to anyone else working for that company.
Thank you for your comment. I even got to vent some. Numb3rTech
I don't think it's so much about the things we have here, or even the hard economic times. I think these things are added stressors, but there's always stress.
I think the difference is that Americans have lost their sense of community. We live in a ME, ME, ME world. Neighbors don't watch out for neighbors anymore. We don't talk on the phone, we text. We hide behind our computers to be nasty on message boards. Truthfully, if you were down and out and didn't have a sense of community, what would stop you? Or, if you were suffering from depression and felt the stigma was too much to bear, and no one was there to support you, wouldn't you be in serious jeopardy?
Many in this uptick in suicide are military veterans, too. Suicide among them has been a real problem for some time now.
As the homelessness, mental illness, alcoholism and other adjustment problems start affecting more and more veterans...
As the government cuts back more and more on helping veterans...
As the public realizes more and more that the present wars solve nothing, create more monumental problems, destroy more lives and only serve to siphon more billions into the pockets of the evil Military Industrial Complex...
...the majority of Americans will get fed up and want no more wars and realize peace and diplomacy are the way to prosperity and a happy, healthy populace...
...that is until the sword rattlers get the public all worked up by straw dogs and problems their meddling has created and they happily send their kids off to "fight for freedom" or some other nonsensical catch phrase.
President Eisenhower warned us, too bad most people didn't listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VD0pE37vo
We should never cut back on helping our veterans. The general public should be doing more for them also on their own.
The United States does need to keep a strong military. Both defense and attack. It took way too long to find and eliminate Osama Bin Laden. That should have been accomplished in less than a year if we had to invade and take the country harboring him apart piece by piece. And we should not have to pay countries that do not assist with combating terrorist attacks.
We do need and want a populace that is healthy, happy and prosperous, and able to live safely without worrying about their future or wars. We have the technology. We have the people willing to work. It does not need to be done by bigger government, but by a government that is efficient with people and money. That will lead to a secure future.
In my opinion.
Ugggghhh! This is all Kathie Lee Gifford's fault.
GayAtheistMarine, thank you for your service, and surprisingly, the most cogent answer posted since I started trolling the article.
Time to outlaw suicide. Oh wait...
The spike is due to "opiods" oxycontin,roxys,zanex, addderol, on and on. Let me tell there is a whole new generation of "pill heads" that are constantly at risk of dying. These are mostly younger late teens,twenties that are causing the spike. To give you a gauge of the progression of this problem, I will tell you about ten years ago and before, all you would see at the Methadone clinics were older people, mostly Vets coming off or who have been off heroine for years.
Now when you go by the Methadone clinic it looks like a high school or college, because so many youths have became addicted and methadone is what they use to come off the opiods. I blame "big pharma" and lack of integrity by doctors, whom easily prescribed these drugs. Now there are more stringent rules in place to combat this, but once again, to little too late.
The sooner this problem is corrected, the sooner the suicide rate will drop. Hopefully this the peak and will start to go down from now on.
@ mickey;
Yes this is a definite contributor also.
So, every O.D. is now a "suicide"? We no longer differentiate intentional acts to cause one's own death from misadventure?
Can someone explain this?
This would be hard to classify, but when you take to many pills knowing you could die from it ,could be considered suicide. The depression that comes after you are off the pills when the brain does not naturally produce endorphines like it is supposed to Icould be more where the suicide comes in.
Coral Taxi
Did you read the whole article?
"Death by unintentional poisoning, which includes drug overdoses, came in third behind car wrecks and suicide"
An accidental overdose is still an accident.
and just how many people are undertreated for pain by doctors and get hold of enough pills to end the cycle of abuse by the medical field? It is HELL to be in pain and no doctor wants to risk being flagged by the DEA for giving an adequate dose. And that "dose" is determined by a group of people (let's say 2000) and the average of those people becomes the new "norm" for everyone! I now have "normal" BP which is for me Very High BP. Doctors don't seem to "get" that. So I self treat - with magnesium daily. What is a person to do in acute chronic pain situations (like Cluster Headaches) when they can't find a pain doctor willing to treat them? Hmmmm.... well maybe suicide is the answer? Washington State Legislators (not physicians) have passed a law that someone with chronic pain cannot be treated in the ER with narcotics or the doctor and nurses attending will be charged. Yet pain doctors are few and far between and booked solid. Yeah, let's just get some of that Obamacare since our gov't does such a great job with medicare and our budget already. God help us.
It is easy to get medications that conflict with other medications. I had true hell getting the medications I actually needed. I have to go to a different doctors for specific problems and they all have a list of the medications that are prescribed for me, there is still a problem with conflicting medications. I have to look them up on the internet myself before I even touch them and then make a decision. Even though I only go to one pharmacy, they have not caught on to the interactions of the different medications I take so I have had to quit several and adjust living style and diet. After three years, I finally got one of my needed medications prescribed yesterday. I had to drop other medications due to the conflicts listed and may add them back one at a time or not, depending upon how my body reacts.
It is a shame that this is the way the world works. I am on some heavy duty narcotics due to unrepairable spinal damage caused by lack of proper equipment for the job that I had. Fortunately, I do not have to take them 100% of the time and can stand the pain for a bit of time. One thing I am doing is making sure it does not happen to anyone else that took over my job. I am unable to sit, stand, walk, lift, etc. for long and can not maintain concentration due to the spine problems coupled with the medication.
I am not complaining for myself. I think people should be able to get the medications they need a lot easier. I also see why doctors are so leery about writing prescriptions. It is due to society in general along with ignorance of self responsibility. There are people that will blindly take any medication prescribed to them. It is easy to die from medications. Even when there is not a true overdose.
In my opinion. Numb3rTech
Coral taxi...
Heroin is enjoying a new surge, thus your line of young people. There are a large number of older people that are becoming prescription junkies. Oxycontin is the drug of choice of the doctors).
@ basch; Yes I believe they can snort it now. I am just suggesting what could be part of the spike, not the overall ways of suicide.
The majority of gun fatalities in the USA, are white males between 45 & 55 commiting suicide...
The next largest demographic is black males 15 to 25 commiting a crime...
This has been the case for years, the unemployment numbers, just drive these numbers HIGHER...
Japan the suicide capital of the world, has almost NO guns available to the public...
A person trying to commit suicide, will use what ever is available...
Social isolation, over-crowding, and a lack of a meaningful future...
Suicide kills more Americans than car crashes <~~~ Bloomberg will no doubt draft a resolution against it.
Easy to fix this...
When a driver is operating a PDA or cell phone, have the vehicle automadicly TURN OFF their air bags...
This would get those numbers back-up...
I would wager an alarming percentage of car accidents are a result of suicidal tendencies.
(The affliction, not the band)
Bloomberg will limit suicides to 16oz.
How many of those suicides were with a handgun?
A few years ago the gun suicide rate was above 55+a day...
The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,[5] with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths.[6]
According to the American foundation of Suicide Prevention - http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=050FEA9F-B064-4092-B1135C3A70DE1FDA
These numbers have not gone down...
yall sure pot is the problem?
Thought it was Bush but you are probably right and it is pot.
I think they are not taking into account the economic environment. Gas at $4, less driving. House in foreclosure, suicide.
There's a kid in India who dreams of owning a car to put gas into. He's not thinking of suicide.
Foreclosures..Bank/Wall Street planned scam causes suicides
PTSD & Vets...Wars to expand for our Markets (not the excuse of terrorists, thats not why we are crawling all over the MiddleEast) (Research all the American Business going on everywhere but here. You'll be astounded)Vet suicides caused by Free Market
Unemployed...suicides caused by Massive Corporation Outsourcing and getting worse. No matter what you give them, they will never willingly leave getting it all for free.
Senior suicides..people who just can't keep up with cost of living on SSI.
Mothers & fathers killing children first and then themselves because life has become too expensive and we have no choices, no hope, no chance.
To relaxdontdoit #17.1
Almost 99 % of people in India today do not own a car. Thus the people of India do not feel depressed or suicidal because most people there are no better off than you are. You do not miss what you never had in the first place.
In America, a majority of people have their own car. Here in America, if you do not own a car, you would feel that you were a failure because almost every one else does have their own car.
It's all a matter of persons perspective that creates suicidal tendencies. Here, there are many haves and in India there are almost all have nots.
Isn't that the premise behind Obamas Trickle Up Poverty?
lfh11, I agree with you to an extent, but the material comfort of having a car, or even access to a bus and not having to walk everywhere independently benefits your life greatly and should make you much happier regardless of what others have or think.
When it comes down to it, suicide is caused by weakness (bad and avoidable), and generally combined with mental illness (less avoidable).
Where suicide is seen as a tragedy, more suicides occur.
Where suicide-when a healthy, younger person does it-is seen as something a weak moron does, there are few suicides.
relaxdontdoit,
Japanese society's attitude toward suicide has been termed "tolerant," and in many occasions suicide is seen as a morally responsible action.[9]...
Japan has been the suicide capital of the World for the last decade...
In 2009, the number of suicides rose 2 percent to 32,845 exceeding 30,000 for the twelfth straight year and equating to nearly 26 suicides per 100,000 people.[10] In comparison, the UK rate is about 9 per 100,000, and the US rate around 11 per 100,000.[4]
In 2009, the number of suicides among men rose 641 to 23,472 (with those age 40–69 accounting for 40.8% of the total). Suicide was the leading cause of death among men age 20–44.[4][5]
They are now experiencing another surge in suicides, due to lack of JOBS, after their 1990's meltdown. Just like the USA is currently experiencing...
appreciate the facts-based answer AC
This life is bad at best. Knowing that there is a better life in the hereafter gives us the courage to continue until the end. As God has been removed from America, fewer people know Him and have the hope He gives. They see no hope of anything better, so they kill themselves. Liberals want "freedom" from a God who requires constraint, but that freedom comes with a severe price- hopelessness.
That's a healthy viewpoint to have and to hold. You get to listen to a minister tell you "it's all ok, it's all lions and lambs and stuff now".
I think it takes true strength of character to face the blackness and live a noble life, leave the world a better place, and hope there's a heaven but not expect it. That's why your decisions have to count on earth.
Faith in eternal paradise so what happens on earth doesn't matter is a cop out. A d@mn healthy one. But a cop out nonetheless. If completely believed, then whatever happens on the lil earth is just hunky-dory, a tiny blip in your eternal awesomeness.
Faith, at its end, absolves you of the heavy and terrifying responsibility to live a noble and meaningful life.
Suicidal thinking and action have long been considered proof of mental illness. But now if normal people are killing themselves because they just can't make a go of anything, can't get work or aid or an assist from friend/family/good Samaritan, will suicide cease to be considered evidence of mental illness, and just be chalked up to a man's giving up against insurmountable odds, or his perception of them?
Many things considered Mental Illness are not that at all. Only in America and Big Parm will make you a pill for all it. Lots of Mental illness is a cop out for a system which Does Not work for regular people.
Darwin would say "good riddance" to a modern American committing suicide due to "insurmountable odds".
What about suicide by car?
i believe this one...someone committed suicide in the park i live in TODAY
Maybe if there had not been so many outsourced jobs to other countries people would be more cheerful and not unemployed which leads to suicide. If you want to put a dent in the deficit, then tax the hell out of these companies that make it on foreign land soils only to sell it here. Raise the rate to 50% and they will either pay or bring back the jobs. The GOP has no concern for the welfare of Americans, it is only concerned with profit for themselves, shareholders, and the corporations. Our country is in a downslide for many things which include jobs, education, healthcare, and morals when it comes to thinking and helping others. The me mentality is not just for the youngest generations, it is also in the House and Senate in seats occupied by the GOP. Suicide is not even tracked for anti-depressants that is highly likely in the higher numbers too. These are powerful mind altering drugs. Do a google search on murderers like the Columbine shooting and others. These killers were on the anti-depressants for a short time, not monitored, and they endanger others and themselves. The anti-depressant market needs to have tighter controls and oversight to reduce the number of suicides especially for those first on the medication. One hour they can look normal and acting fine and the next they become suicidal and back in their dark hole. There is no good suicide, but the truly bad ones are when they kill others first then themselves. At least just do yourself and leave everyone else alone. And for those that whisper and avoid the survivors of suicides in a family, shame on you, because this could happen to you someday and then everyone is pointing and talking behind your back too. Suicide eventually touches every family somehow, if not directly, then indirectly through acquaintences.
Then the countries we outsource to should have suicide epidemics, given their much harsher living conditions? Cogent point about the GOP.
I still say Kathy Griffin.
Apple's supplier, FoxConn, had a lot more suicides until they put netting around the building to catch the jumpers before they hit the ground and died. Some countries do have suicide epidemics.
I think that's a cultural phenomenon, but I admit do stand corrected.
I guess I can kind of see suicide increasing if people no longer feeling connected to value creation, employed or not.
Unintensional poisoning? Suicide? Obama must have the Kool-Aid flowing again. Guess it is election year....
Wow, that's surprising. The driving age has been creeping up to 18 in places, and if It's not 18, massive restrictions have been put in place, ensuring inexperienced drivers don't get experience before they are 18. That also means, HOLY CRAP, a teen in need just can't visit his/her friend any more to talk to them because it might be past government issued driving curfew. Remember that parents? I sure as hell don't. Yes I'm being extreme, but this is just the tip of the iceberg we created with the bubblewrapped, nanny state we created for our kids. Buckle up. It's going to get worse as more laws are passed. If you're stupid enough to think it's only going to affect your kids, you're in for it. You're already getting tickets because the government has decided you're not smart enough to decide whether or not you should wear a seat belt. Have fun... Big brother is just looking out for you.
Bull crap! Suicide statistics are always scewed to include accidental self-inflicted overdoses, unexplained motor vehicle deaths, drownings, shootings, and just about every kind of demise you can imagine of a person that is troubled and ISN'T a homocide. The higher the "perceived" suicide rate, the greater the call for more mental health people and cottage industry agencies designed to "heal" all of us that are so impaired. In reality, accidental deaths out-number suicides about 3 to 1! AC Robertson - go back to your kool aid and funny weed, never in the history of this nation were 55 people killing themselves every day with a firearm, getting murdered - maybe!
Here is a chart for the research impared -
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/04/21/weekinreview/20070422_MARSH_GRAPHIC.html
This is 2004 data, for more current data see http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?q=gun+deaths&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&site=default_collection&btnG.x=31&btnG.y=6
JP: how do you KNOW there aren't 55 people killing themselves each day? It works out to be only about 1 out of every 5.6 million people per day. Considering the lowest 40% of Americans owned 0.9% of the country pre-Reagan, own 0.2% now, and the far-right still complains about "redistribution", is there any wonder there's a lot of despair? Of advanced nations, we are by far the highest in income inequality.
White males continue to have, by far, the highest suicide rate of any major group in the USA.
you're racist!
He's absolutely right Joe.
I am sorry Joe 1059546 but I see nothing racist about the comment that white males have the highest suicide rate.
Good thing you didn't say black males, or you'd be called racist.
Trace the reason for the suicide rate rising back to Kenya, Indonesia and Hawaii.