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"I think so many kids drink because the state is barren, desolate and boring to some people, and there's not really anything to do," Isaiah Springer, a recent high school graduate from Cheyenne, Wy., told the Times.
The all-night beer parties that break the tedium for kids often turn deadly, however. "Had a kid, drunk, flipped his car going 80 miles an hour, and that killed him; and another kid, drink, smashed his boat up against a 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, sheriff of Wyoming's Park County.
One federal survey, conducted three years ago, found that south-central Wyoming led the nation in alcohol abuse by people 12 years of age or under. The same survey found that rural 12-and-13-year-olds were twice as likely as urban youth to drink and abuse alcohol. Experts say drug abuse -- especially methamphetamine -- is also rampant in small towns in the north and west central plains.
Others point to an ingrained culture in the region that may encourage also drinking. "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,'" Rosie Buzzas, a Montana state legislator who oversees alcohol counseling services in the western part of the state, told the Times. "There's a church, a school, and 10 bars in every town." - (HealthDay News)
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