Drink up.
Oregon's reputation is changing.
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| Steve Prefontaine |
More recently we gained a reputation as a place that was like California, but less crowded and expensive. Oregon implied "livability." Life was easier here, and better. Californians came here to retire.
Recently things got darker. NY Times writer Nicholas Kristof writes from Oregon about the multiple dysfunctions of his boyhood home in rural Oregon. Oregon was partly Appalachia. Somehow the same distressed counties were associated with world class pinot noir wines. Nearby Portland was an over-the-top liberal utopia, parodied in the TV show Portlandia. Somehow Oregon was all three at once.
Jack Mullen spent his youth in Southern Oregon. He lives in Washington, D.C. now. He has been reading stories in the national news that add a new dimension to Oregon as the number one state for drug and alcohol addictions.
Guest Post by Jack Mullen
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As a former Oregon resident having grown up in the Rogue Valley, I wince every time I hear downtown Portland referred to as a combat zone. Descriptions of rural Oregon fare no better, with many sordid accounts of the ravages of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and even heroin tearing communities apart.
Perhaps Portland’s reputation as “Beervana”, the nation’s leader in craft breweries, helps seal the town’s culinary reputation as a better restaurant town than San Francisco. But at what cost?
Perhaps all the wineries dotting the Oregon countryside make Oregonians proud when they learn that Oregon ranks second only to California in the number of wineries in a state. But at what cost?
Without sounding too much of a “get off my lawn” type, I can remember spending summers sauntering across the Rogue Valley with Peter Sage, thinning and picking pears. Those orchards, where occasionally I chucked a rotten pear at Peter, as he diligently was plucking off a ripe Anjou, are now growing grapes. Only 12% of the valley’s pear orchards that existed during the 1960’s still exist, having been sold off. I suppose you can say beautiful vineyards make for an even more scenic Rogue River Valley.
What concerns me is Oregon is now referred to as a drinker’s paradise. Oregon has the highest rate of alcohol disorder in the country. The Oregon Health Authority was quoted in the New York Times saying more Oregon residents died of alcohol related deaths than meth, fentanyl and heroin combined. This is not pretty.
American history is resplendent with the tug of war with those trying to control perceived vices. Women founded he Temperance Movement in the late 19th century, which, to its everlasting credit, resulted in giving women the right to vote. The Temperance movement also lead to Prohibition. The former was long overdue, the latter proved to be a disaster.
Temperance Movement descendants later found success when they formed MADD, Mother Against Drunk Driving, resulting in fewer deaths.
Is it possible to lessen alcohol related deaths beyond just drunk driving?
The long-fought battle against Big Tobacco provides an example on how to succeed and save lives. It took increased taxes on a pack of cigarettes, a ban of all television and radio cigarette commercials, and even Hollywood deciding not to glamorize smoking to make a potential smokers think twice about smoking.
The same road to success with alcohol is to tax the producers and sellers, who in turn pass on costs to the consumer. Studies show at least in Illinois and Maryland, increased taxes on producers reduced binge drinking. I’d say that is at least a start.
10 comments:
I read an article recently that alcohol consumption in movies would be viewed similarly to cigarette smoking 50 years from now. Alcohol consumption among the less than 30 crowd is actually much lower than in the past. There is a much greater recognition of the downsides to drinking, even the moderate alcohol consumption is taking a hit for cognitive decline. As someone who worked in prisons for 30 years, I can assure you alcohol is related to lots of crime and misery.
As far as Oregon reputation goes, keeping it from growing to populated seems like a good thing to me. Oregon remains a great state in my eyes, as does the Pacific Northwest as well.
I fear that the worst reputation that Oregon will have is related to wildfires and smoke in the summer.
The three candidates for governor in Oregon are focusing on the unsightly unhoused population, tho Oregon may not be worse off than other states in this area.
We still have a large population in eastern Oregon not yet hooked up to the internet and remain relatively uninformed on a lot of issues.
With the exception of northern Washington, I still would not live anywhere else.
We have three beautiful seasons (not summer!) here. We have a great Oregon Health Care plan for those in need. We have beautiful Wilderness and Monuments. Fabulous wild rivers. Stately old growth forests with giant trees.
And, a beautiful rugged coast that is open to visitation by the pubic.
There is so much to like in Oregon!
According to the CDC, Excessive alcohol use was responsible for more than 140,000 deaths in the United States each year during 2015–2019, or more than 380 deaths per day. These estimates are from the CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application.
We have a thriving beer and wine industry here, and people like to imagine those are somehow more convivial and less dangerous, but for those prone to addiction, alcohol is alcohol. Banning it has already been tried and worked out about as well as our ‘war on drugs.’ Drugs and alcohol won.
On the other hand, we don’t need to be glorifying it. In “Leaving Las Vegas,” Nicholas Cage won an Oscar for playing a writer who drank himself to death. In the movie, he died making love. Very romantic, but I can assure you that’s not how it happens. In real life, if they don’t kill themselves and/or others in an accident, they usually suffer from ascites and die of liver failure, bleeding from esophageal and rectal varices. It’s not a pretty picture.
Alcohol absolutely should be treated like tobacco, including warning labels and making the alcohol industry pay for the harm to individuals, families and society.
Next question: What about pot?
The Rogue Valley promotes its wineries, and the City of Medford promotes various beer festivals.
On the flip-side, Medford Police also give DUI tickets to people who only have one drink, and who are below .008.
Isn't that contradictory?
What about Pot ? Banning for the last 100 years or so has proved as effective as the Volstead Act was in banning alcohol. If the effects of Pot had been studied as thoroughly as those of alcohol and tobacco, we might be in a different space about the use of THC containing substances. But a lack of political willingness to stand up to Regressives and fund NIH and CDC studies have put us behind the 8 ball, years behind where we should be. I don't use THC, except as a pain relief salve, and that because the salve stops the arthritis in my 75 year old hands within minutes of applying it.
Banning alcohol is not suggested or advocated in the guest blog.
In heaven there is no beer. That's why we drink it here.
Again, one (so far) has suggested banning tobacco, alcohol or pot. The guest blog is not about banning anything.
It might help to reread the guest blog.
Correction: "No one" not "one."
Although I may be wrong, I think the concerns about marijuana (where it is now sold legally) usually are related to the recreational use of marijuana, not medical marijuana. In other words, individuals getting high using marijuana.
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