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September 2, 2006

Boredom in the West Fuels Binge Drinking 

By TIMOTHY EGAN <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/timothy_egan/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

CODY, Wyo. - Barely five people per square mile live on the high, wind-raked ground of Wyoming <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/wyoming/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> ; the entire state is a small town with long streets, as they say. The open space means room to roam and a sense of frontier freedom. 

It also means that on any given night, an unusually high percentage of young people here are drinking alcohol until they vomit, pass out or do something that lands them in jail or nearly gets them killed.

"Had a kid, drunk, flipped his car going 80 miles an hour, and that killed him; and another kid, drunk, smashed his boat up against the rock just a couple months ago, killing two; and then there was this beating after a kegger - they clubbed this kid to death," said Scott Steward, the sheriff here in Park County, recounting casualties that followed long nights of hard drinking by high school students. 

A federal government survey recently confirmed what residents of Wyoming, Montana <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/montana/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  and the Dakotas already knew: people there drink to excess, at very early ages, well above the national average. 

The survey, conducted over three years by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said south-central Wyoming led the nation with the highest rate of alcohol abuse by people age 12 and older. In Albany and Carbon counties, more than 30 percent of people under age 20 binge drink - 50 percent above the national average. 

In examining behavior in 340 regions of the country, the survey found that 7 of the top 10 areas for under-age binge drinking - defined as five or more drinks at a time - were in Wyoming, Montana and North and South Dakota <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/southdakota/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> .

At the other end of the scale, some of the lowest areas for under-age binge drinking were in the nation's most densely packed cities - parts of Washington, D.C., Detroit and Los Angeles. An earlier federal study found that rural youths ages 12 and 13 were twice as likely as urban youths to abuse alcohol.

With methamphetamine ravaging small towns, Wyoming and other rural states have also been fighting a persistent drug problem.

And while it may be a mystery to some why the least-populated part of the country leads the nation in the percentage of young people drinking to excess, it is no surprise to many people in Wyoming or Montana. Teenagers, police officers and counselors offer the same reason: the boredom of the big empty.

"After living in the city, it's obvious to me that kids just get bored here," said Karen Grimm, who moved here from Seattle 10 years ago. "There is this feeling of isolation, especially in the wintertime."

Ms. Grimm's daughter, Risa, a freshman at Cody High School, estimated that about half the students at her school regularly drank alcohol.

Friday nights in Cody can mean football and a movie, but after 11 o'clock, with nothing else to do, teenagers say they head to somebody's ranch or into the mountains toward Yellowstone National Park to drink.

"I think so many kids drink because the state is barren, desolate and boring to some people, and there is not really anything to do," said Isaiah Spigner, a recent high school graduate from Cheyenne who is headed for the University of Wyoming <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_wyoming/index.html?inline=nyt-org> . 

But geography alone does not fully explain why there is such a drinking problem among young people.

"We're a frontier culture, and people say, 'I work hard and I'll be damned if I'm not going to have a beer or two on the way home,' " said Rosie Buzzas, a Montana state legislator who also oversees alcohol counseling services in the western part of the state. "There's a church, a school, and 10 bars in every town."

It has never been hard for young people to get alcohol in Montana, Ms. Buzzas said, in part because many parents think it is a rite of passage for children to drink.

"There are plenty of adults who tell me, 'What's the big deal? Kids just have to learn to drink,' " she said. Not long ago, three children, ages 9, 11 and 12, died of alcohol poisoning in an isolated town in Montana, but the deaths did little to change attitudes, she said. 

"Something like that has a sobering effect, but it doesn't last," Ms. Buzzas said. "Kids aren't listening to what we say; they're watching what we do."

This year, Montana made it an offense to drink while driving, one of the last states to do so. But there was heavy opposition.

Wyoming still allows passengers in a vehicle to drink, as long as the driver is not holding the container. A bill that would have made that illegal was defeated. A minor in possession of alcohol can be fined, but will typically not lose a driver's license for a first offense.

At the nightly rodeo in Cody, beer signs are ubiquitous, and on the town's main commercial strip, a giant beer banner welcomes tourists. 

Some say a legacy of forcing children to grow up early in the empty West may contribute to the problem. From 1854 to 1929, about 200,000 orphan children arrived by train from the East and were offered to families for adoption. The orphan trains, as they were called, left a psychic print, some counselors and historians say.

"The idea that life is harsh and you learn it at an early age is part of our history," said Ralph Boerner, who counsels alcoholics of all ages in Butte, Mont. 

"I asked everyone in my group the other night when they started drinking," Mr. Boerner said. "The latest was 15. The earliest was age 5."

Binge drinking, he said, is a way for young people to prove themselves in the West.

"You get validation by saying, 'Boy, did I get hammered,' " Mr. Boerner said. 

Here in Park County, where the sheriff has four deputies to patrol an area much larger than Connecticut, parents can be as much a problem as their children, Sheriff Steward said. 

"We'll bust a party where every kid is drinking, call the parents, and they're mad at us for getting them out of bed," he said. 

The recent surveys show that girls, starting in middle school, are much more likely to drink than earlier studies found. In part, some say, that is because of flavored drinks that hide the taste of alcohol, so-called alcopops. 

"People who want to get wasted but don't like the taste of beer, they're drinking something like Mike's Hard Lemonade," said Sienna White, a sophomore at Cody High School who says she does not drink. 

Sienna estimated that half the students at her school drank. "Living in a cowboy town," she said, "it's really hard to find a party without drinking." 

But Sienna and other students are part of a program at the school where students pledge not to drink or take drugs. The program has had a fair amount of success drawing athletes and cheerleaders, offering positive role models, school officials say. 

Sheriff Steward, however, is skeptical. Like other adults who now preach against what they once practiced, the sheriff remembers his own high school days of beer.

"Obviously we've all been there," said Sheriff Steward, who went to Cody High School 20 years ago, and said 60 to 65 percent of his fellow students drank. "The problem, then and now, was that there was nothing to do in Cody after a certain time."

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Submitted by
David T. Courtwright
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