Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

Over the last half-decade, the move to hide drug-use has gone from disdaining clouds of lingering marijuana smoke that leave blatant evidence to 'now you see them, now you don't' party-pills. Getting wasted on them can easily be mistaken for simply being drunk, especially if the drug-user has a beer bottle or 'drink' in their hand. No one is the wiser and unsuspecting, aloof parents chuck it up to a 'rite of passage' that is mildly looked down upon thinking it is just booze.  Drug distributors across the country have homed in on the popularity of taking drugs in pill format and have created a potpourri of '31 flavors' to cater to all kinds of demands mostly coming from an adolescent and early adulthood (college-age) market.  Injecting heroin with a syringe is passe,' and not at all fashionable. That is what junkies do. The 'cool kids' pop the pills, drink a bit of beer and proceed with their plans of having a good time. It i...

I t was made clear to me last night in the darkness of Scalzi skatepark in Stamford, Connecticut why there is hesitancy to bring in night lights. “The crowds it would bring…” I realized that the skatepark would be inundated with people from far-flung places. As skateparks go, Scalzi is definitely not top-of-the-line, yet it is one of the best in the region along with the one in New York City just outside of Chelsea piers.  Last night I stayed longer than usual and saw the park transform, and not for the better. A small crowd of middle school boys and girls drinking, smoking and going into the bushes.   I remember picking up used condom wrappers outside the skatepark fence, leaflets talking about the spread of AIDS and I wondered what would happen to them if they were pushed out and a new crowd would come in. Where would these kids go? What would happen to them? Surely, they would find some other place to party and unwind. So I stayed a bit longer in the darknes...