Wesleyan university - 12 kids hospitalized for drug overdose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If ten percent of the students are drug abusers, then everyone at Admissions needs to be fired. Don't they get tens of thousands of applications every year? Did they really pick the cream of the crop? I think not. (They need more Asian math majors and fewer drug addicts!)

If you want an insight into Wesleyan admissions, read The Gatekeepers (http://www.amazon.com/The-Gatekeepers-Admissions-Process-Premier/dp/0142003085). Wesleyan isn't turning away Asian Math Majors in droves - it's not Harvard, Princeton or MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middeltown is kind of depressing. Weslyan is an amazing school

I don't think it's that bad. Or wasn't when I lived in CT. CT is also the size of a postage stamp--you're about 20 minutes from Essex, which is beautiful and the way people imagine CT. It's smack in the middle of the state, so not far from anywhere, really.

It's kind of an interesting town to experience if you are used to living in affluent dc or affluent suburbs. Very working, rust belt. Large Sicilian population that kinda runs the town with an old school political machine. Sure it's not super cutesy but it is a different kind of place that most well off kids wouldn't experience otherwise. And the downtown does have some charm to it.

I agree that there are tons of great places nearby - beaches, skiing, hiking etc - but you need a car to access most of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish college kids realized that life is actually better without drugs and alcohol. I hope these students are ok.

I agree but when you have a forum like this with mothers and father smoking pot, drinking like fish, taking every pharmaceutical known to man and calling anyone that doesn't partake in these activities prudes, grandma/grandpa, uncool and uptight, you realize it's a lot cause.

This has really surprised me, too. I think inclusiveness and tolerance is generally the path of sensible moderation and the only way forward for society, but intoxication is unhealthy and makes people do unwise things. Stupid kids might get involved with such things, but parents have no business diminishing their acuity and certainly should not be exposing their children (or anyone else) to second-hand highs.

Out of curiosity, why did you only bold the pot part, but not the drinking or pharmaceutical part?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middeltown is kind of depressing. Weslyan is an amazing school

I don't think it's that bad. Or wasn't when I lived in CT. CT is also the size of a postage stamp--you're about 20 minutes from Essex, which is beautiful and the way people imagine CT. It's smack in the middle of the state, so not far from anywhere, really.

It's kind of an interesting town to experience if you are used to living in affluent dc or affluent suburbs. Very working, rust belt. Large Sicilian population that kinda runs the town with an old school political machine. Sure it's not super cutesy but it is a different kind of place that most well off kids wouldn't experience otherwise. And the downtown does have some charm to it.

I agree that there are tons of great places nearby - beaches, skiing, hiking etc - but you need a car to access most of that.

I agree (I'm the PP). I lived in Norwich, the former Rose of New England for a while. It was just pulling out of a very economically depressed time then (as was New London). Beautiful old buildings, interesting family run restaurants, no chain anything (unless you count link fences, ha).

I had a car all through undergrad (I was a grad student in CT), so I guess it didn't occur to me that one wouldn't. Very limiting, I think. New England is so nice and compact, there is so much to see and do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people automatically become hypocrites when they have children? How many of you would have been thrown out of college for underage drinking, smoking pot, etc. if there was a zero tolerance policy? I would have been expelled the first week. We managed to grow up and become productive members of society, and our kids will too.

Here, here. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middeltown is kind of depressing. Weslyan is an amazing school

I don't think it's that bad. Or wasn't when I lived in CT. CT is also the size of a postage stamp--you're about 20 minutes from Essex, which is beautiful and the way people imagine CT. It's smack in the middle of the state, so not far from anywhere, really.

It's kind of an interesting town to experience if you are used to living in affluent dc or affluent suburbs. Very working, rust belt. Large Sicilian population that kinda runs the town with an old school political machine. Sure it's not super cutesy but it is a different kind of place that most well off kids wouldn't experience otherwise. And the downtown does have some charm to it.

I agree that there are tons of great places nearby - beaches, skiing, hiking etc - but you need a car to access most of that.

Agree. And it was thus way in the 70's. I learned that most people didn't share my affluent Boston area upbringing. PP do you remember steamed cheeseburgers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish college kids realized that life is actually better without drugs and alcohol. I hope these students are ok.

I agree but when you have a forum like this with mothers and father smoking pot, drinking like fish, taking every pharmaceutical known to man and calling anyone that doesn't partake in these activities prudes, grandma/grandpa, uncool and uptight, you realize it's a lot cause.

This has really surprised me, too. I think inclusiveness and tolerance is generally the path of sensible moderation and the only way forward for society, but intoxication is unhealthy and makes people do unwise things. Stupid kids might get involved with such things, but parents have no business diminishing their acuity and certainly should not be exposing their children (or anyone else) to second-hand highs.

Out of curiosity, why did you only bold the pot part, but not the drinking or pharmaceutical part?

Oh- Mostly because it's topical. I live in the District and am amazed by the popular rehabilitation of marijuana. I still can't see how it's anything other than unhealthy and (if smoked) unsanitary, and it's shocking to me that the parents around me seem to think it's harmless-- even to children exposed to second-hand smoke.

But I don't actually feel like there's a correspondingly bizarre level of acceptance for excessive drinking and narcotic abuse on DCUM. A few weirdos, maybe, but pot is clearly much more fashionable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middeltown is kind of depressing. Weslyan is an amazing school

I don't think it's that bad. Or wasn't when I lived in CT. CT is also the size of a postage stamp--you're about 20 minutes from Essex, which is beautiful and the way people imagine CT. It's smack in the middle of the state, so not far from anywhere, really.

It's kind of an interesting town to experience if you are used to living in affluent dc or affluent suburbs. Very working, rust belt. Large Sicilian population that kinda runs the town with an old school political machine. Sure it's not super cutesy but it is a different kind of place that most well off kids wouldn't experience otherwise. And the downtown does have some charm to it.

I agree that there are tons of great places nearby - beaches, skiing, hiking etc - but you need a car to access most of that.

Agree. And it was thus way in the 70's. I learned that most people didn't share my affluent Boston area upbringing. PP do you remember steamed cheeseburgers?

Wait-- if we're talking to people who were undergrads in the '70s, it's no wonder so many are cool with pot.

[Anonymous]

Those who accuse DCUMmers of hypocrisy probably have a point, if DCUm folks are as laid back about the resurgence of marijuana as most of the world seems to be. Sorry to say this, but even Real Housewives of BH had the wives in Amsterdam all talking about how good pot is, how much they looked forward to it (though most reluctant when the time to each laced cake came, saying they didn't want to model this behavior for their kids). A lot of ambivalence and mixed messages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not to mention they may not be guilty. There are a lot of rumors going around that the school was so quick to find someone accountable that they rounded up students who are not guilty. Lets see what happens. Clearly the school and authorities are taking this seriously, as they should, so we don't have to play judge and jury.

Two of the students already admitted their guilt on possession with intent to sell, to the police. Those were recorded in the affidavits. You can actually download those, and the court dockets, from the Middletown Police / State of Connecticut. All four students were found in possession of multiple drugs (most of which were not included in the "bad batch" mixture). So on simple possession of illicit substances (not dealing) it will be hard for any of them to beat the charges. It's a fact that they had that stuff in their dorm rooms.

Then on the more serious charges about the "Molly" mass-overdose:
The questions of who made the drugs, who mixed the drugs, who directly sold the drugs to the victims (as opposed to merely conspiring to sell drugs, etc.) - all those are still unknown. That will be the crux of the prosecution and the defense.

Plus if you are going to rant about hospitalization for drugs you can't ignore that there are far more hospitalizations and deaths associated with alcohol.

Have you ever worked in the emergency department of a university hospital? I have.

You are correct to point out this fact. Many students are harmed or die from alcohol poisoning, because it is the most-popular recreational drug in universities. But alcohol was not relevant in this particular case, as demonstrated by the toxicology reports from Hartford Hospital.

My perspective on drug overdoses is somewhat different, since I have seen many people dead or dying, in person, in the university hospital wards. In the morgue, I also participated in the autopsies of two, twenty-something-year-old, young people, who died of drug overdoses. One death was accidental, and the other was intentional.

Way off base to call these students sociopaths. You don't seem to know what that word means.

I know what the word means, and I don't retract the statement. I would tell the children's parents the same thing to their faces: "this is a sociopathic activity, and it is a perverse idea that your son/daughter could ever hold a medical license".

My suggestion would be to read the court documents mentioned above (on the factual aspects), or possibly a dictionary of the English language (on the semantic aspect).

Innocent until proven guilty, fair enough.

I agree with the above poster with regard to the sociopathic condition of those particular former students.

[Anonymous]

Can they still become physicians?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If ten percent of the students are drug abusers, then everyone at Admissions needs to be fired. Don't they get tens of thousands of applications every year? Did they really pick the cream of the crop? I think not. (They need more Asian math majors and fewer drug addicts!)

If you want an insight into Wesleyan admissions, read The Gatekeepers (http://www.amazon.com/The-Gatekeepers-Admissions-Process-Premier/dp/0142003085). Wesleyan isn't turning away Asian Math Majors in droves - it's not Harvard, Princeton or MIT.

If they didn't infirmally limit Asian admissions, they might as well change the name from Wesleyan to Wonton.

[Anonymous]

Wesleyan is DD's first choice. She's an athlete, a great student and all-around kid who isn't interested in the drug culture. I went to Wesleyan many years ago, and of course there were drugs, as there were at all schools. But the halls of my dorm weren't filled with marijuana smoke! It's a regular school, very hard to get into, very academically challenging, an all-around great school. I never did drugs, drank only occasionally there, and none of my friends did either.
To the mom worried about sending her child into a druggie school, I'm not worried about it at all. There are drugs in high school, drugs in college, drugs in the world at large. This incident sounds awful, but it's not as bad as all the binge drinking at some of the huge state schools. I'm not excusing it at all, but I'm not worried that my child will become a druggie by going to Wesleyan, a great, great school.