Here's Why Vermont Has The Highest Rate Of Illicit Drug Use In America

[cali]

Vermont has the highest rate of illicit drug use in the country with 15% of people saying they've used within the past month (compared to 4.2% in Utah, where illicit drug use is the lowest), according to 2010-2011 surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The Northeastern state ranked high for almost every type of drug, from marijuana to cocaine.

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"You have everything from the colder climate, which tends to be a reason some people give, to more liberal attitudes, to higher income levels, to people having more access, but I don't think anyone knows for sure," Barbara Cimaglio told Business Insider.

Cimaglio pointed out that marijuana accounts for a large portion of the state's drug use. Vermont ranked highest in the U.S. for marijuana use, with about 13% of people saying they've used it in the past month.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-vermont-has-a-drug-problem-2013-10#ixzz2htLVZ6r0

[MrsKirkley]

1. How can they afford it?

Rent in Vermont runs $2000/month plus.

[cali]

2. yeah, it's not cheap to live here. Having said that

Vermont is relative well off compared to a lot of states with low unemployment.

[TlalocW]

6. Simple

Everyone and their neighbor are part of a black market maple syrup cartel.

TlalocW

[seveneyes]

7. Let's just say

With all the open space in Vermont and the ability to find isolated dirt patches, green grows quite well there. It's not just the Verd colored rocks that give it the Green Mountain State title. After living there for 25+ years plus hunting and hiking nearly all the NEK, you can just pinch off a few tops of random patches without ever having to plant your own.

[Laelth]

3. Interesting. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[deurbano]

4. My daughter and I lived in Vermont for four years (1975-79) after I moved us there from California

so she could attend a very progressive school for students with disabilities. It was “progressive” in that there was intensive therapy (so, “early intervention,” since she was only two when we moved there) and also inclusion (or “mainstreaming,” back then). Early intervention and inclusion were very hard to come by in those days, so we moved 3,000 miles to get them.

Anyway… one year we lived in a cottage on some land with a bigger house that some couples from Boston owned together… and they would come up for weekends, holidays and vacations. One of the guys was a drug counselor who was considering relocating to Vermont permanently. So, he asked a local if there was a drug problem in the area, and the local said, “No… no problem getting drugs at all.”

I love Vermont. (I mean, not for the access to drugs, since I guess I have that here in San Francisco, too-- if I want it!) But, Vermont was (and is) a great state. I was lucky to have had the chance to live there.

[Skeeter Barnes]

5. From comments below the article: Vermont is also the healthiest state.

Vermont takes the healthy slice of cake this year, winning #1 healthiest state in the union for the sixth year running.

The rankings come from the United Health Foundation's newest edition of the American's Health Rankings. The list is complied from multiple sources including CDC data and phone interviews.They analyze the data in 24 categories, including how many adults smoke or drink, for example. These numbers are then compared to the US average and ranked based on how they compare.

Vermont’s strengths include its number one position for all health determinants combined, which includes ranking in the top 10 states for a high rate of high school graduation, a low violent crime rate, a low incidence of infectious disease, a low prevalence of low birth weight infants, high per capita public health funding, a low rate of uninsured population, and ready availability of primary care physicians.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-vermont-became-the-healthiest-state-in-the-us-once-again-2012-12

[Eleanors38]

8. They must trust each other: It's gun laws make Arizona's look restrictive.

[cali]

10. that is true. Vermonters stick together.

and despite our lax gun laws, we have a low gun crime rate.

we're an anomaly.

[hunter]

9. It's silly to lump it all together as "illicit drug use."

It's silly to describe drug use as "illicit."

Weekly consumption of a few beers, a few glasses of wine, a small amount of marijuana, these are not a public health problem. Opiate prescriptions for chronic pain patients are not a public health problem.

But addictions to drugs like meth, heroin, or any number of drugs made in sketchy criminal labs, alcohol, tobacco; these are public health problems and ought to be treated as such. Anyone who suffers these addictions ought to have free clinical resources available for treatment, even free access to clean, pharmaceutical drugs if that's what it takes to keep them from destroying their own bodies and committing crimes or supporting organized crime by their addiction.