CAAr, with your experience, I'm sure you probably do see things that most don't, so my appologies for getting sarcastic with you. It just seemed outlandish on the surface at first.
It's cool. Also, understand that I don't know either of these two personally, so my impressions are just what I get access to from the media. Also, understand that, as per the NIAAA, the vast majority of individuals (75%) who at one point in life abuse alcohol or drugs, stop this behavior without any intervention.
The problem is not with the teenager or young adult who is just being irresponsible, the problem is those that show some predisposition to drug alcohol dependence (self-medication) or those that develop a dependence from the physical damage certain drugs can cause over time.
From this, I really did respond strongly to the first pictures of Tucker and immediately expressed my concern on these boards, well before the first arrest in IC.
As far as Larson is concerned, there are a couple things about how he talks about these incidents that raised concerns.
1) When asked about his experience of watching his team play without him and getting beat in the state tournament, he didn't say he felt bad because he let his team down and couldn't help them. His comments were entirely self-centered, which is a common thread among those predisposed to alcoholism or drug addiction. They can't see how their actions affect others. The same could be said about the fact that he never commented on how he felt bad about getting his teammate in trouble by giving him pills.
2) The fact of shifting to talk about others when discussing his actions - my mother reminded me I had the pills, my friend saw me taking them and his leg hurt bad too. I didn't really start taking them until I started hanging out with the teammate.
3) The propensity for him to focus on the pain aspect when clearly he was taking them to get intoxicated. Also, the comment about never taking more than the prescribed amount. Each of these comments could be a sign of denial.
4) His discussion about talking to kids and saying it was helpful, because he couldn't talk with his teammates. No discussion how he was able to turn his situation from one of shame to empowerment by sharing his experience and how he grew from it.
5) The fact that it appears that his method of withstanding temptation is just to go to the gym and stay away from trouble. He also talked about learning the dangers of drugs. My experience is that if there is a predisposition to substance abuse, these types of solutions are not effective in the long haul.
All this being said, it is entirely possible that both of these kids are a part of the 75% that just need to grow up and stop making stupid mistakes.
