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Dangerous Molly
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Sep 2013
Source: Northwest Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, AR)
Copyright: 2013 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Contact: http://nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/68570/letter/
Website: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828
DANGEROUS MOLLY
Parental Guidance Required
"I care not who makes a nation's laws but who writes its songs."
- -Attributed to Andrew Fletcher, 1703
THE YOUNG lady, to use the term advisedly, has been in the news of
late, but not for any good reason. The entertainer formerly known as
Hannah Montana seems to have made the usual spectacle of herself.
Naturally it was on morning television. Isn't everything vulgar?
Ah, well, there's no accounting for tastes. Especially the atrocious
kind. But there's something remarkable going on with said young
lady/popular entertainer. Remarkable as in something needs to be said.
Miley Cyrus has a new song on the charts. And it's not "Party in the
U.S.A." from 2009. In her latest hit, there's a reference to drugs in
the lyrics. So? That's nothing new. Maybe not, but . . . . You might
not think twice if your preteen is downloading "We Can't Stop" this
afternoon. After all, Miley Cyrus isn't Eminem. Well, not yet. But if
you hear your sixth grader singing about "Molly," odds are she's not
singing about her new BFF.
POP CULTURE has apparently given its blessing to the junk aka Molly.
Those who keep up with such things say the song charts are blistered
all over with Molly references. Which may tell you more than you care
to know about pop culture. It hasn't changed all that much since Eric
Clapton was singing about cocaine in the '70s or Jefferson Airplane
was lyricizing about pills making you larger and smaller in the '60s.
But there was no mistaking what those lyricists meant back then.
Molly, on the other hand, sounds so innocent.
She's not. Dispatches say that Molly is some form of the drug
Ecstasy, or something the pharmacologists know as
3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine. There may be no telling what
that 3 and 4 have to do with anything, but you might recognize some
of the syllables here and there among this goulash of hyphens and
commas. And the mess can come in pills or powder form.
Side effects? Worse than anything you'll hear mentioned at the end of
the usual ads for some new drug on television.
Let's see. Depression. Irritability. Fatigue. Impaired concentration.
Dizziness. Diarrhea. Insomnia. Exhaustion. Oh, yes, and death. Here's
how experts say Molly can kill: (1) She can cause stroke by making
blood vessels in the brain constrict; (2) She can raise your heart
rate and blood pressure, causing you to overheat, damaging the brain;
(3) She can make the levels of sodium in your body drop
precipitously, causing seizures and, yes, death.
And the innocents take this stuff voluntarily.
INVESTIGATORS back East are looking into whether a bad batch of Molly
killed four young people in Boston, New York City and Washington,
D.C. As if there were such thing as a good batch of the stuff.
Worse news, if you can stand to hear it, is that users often take the
stuff together with other drugs or drink. And there's another term
making the rounds in connection with Miss Molly: suicide Tuesdays.
Because the crash from the high is so severe, deep depression can
result once the effects wear off.
Mom and Dad, this is something you need to know about. And when you
have That Talk with the kids as they start middle school, you might
mention something else besides marijuana and booze: Molly is not a good girl.
Don't be fooled by her innocent name, or by songs from former Disney
Channel stars. Everybody grows up. Not everybody matures.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom