Teens Are Drinking Gasoline Mixed with Mountain Dew and Dying

According to FOX17 in Nashville, TN a second teenager is dead after ingesting a mix of racing fuel and Mountain Dew. 

Underage drinking has always been a problem in this country, but this is too much. When I was young, we drank WAY before we should have, and people did really dumb, really dangerous things. I don't, however, ever remember someone suggesting we drink gasoline. I don't remember anyone ever saying that it would be a good idea to put vodka up our rear ends. I don't remember anyone saying that putting vodka in our eyeballs would be smart. I never heard the term bath salts.

It's like with all other things in our society. These kids seem completely desensitized to violence, sex and drug use. It's not enough to do drugs. You have to find interesting new ways to get them in your blood stream. It's not enough to get in a petty little street fight. You have to put someone in critical condition. It's not enough to have sex. You have to engage in things that no one ever heard of when I was young.

The more I write about the young people of today, the more I know I am getting old fast. I am so glad I grew up when I did. We had to make an effort to connect with each other, we had to put thought into making our limited social interactions fun, and we never had a picture of us doing something really dumb plastered on the internet. That is the way I like it.

I'm scared for the future of my three boys, and for any person who is a parent now that has to navigate this uncharted territory. Just the way this stuff is all new to these kids, it's also all new to their parents.