Neighbors share insights into teacher accused of bringing heroin to school

@nraJeff: If I may quote you, "Really, [Jeff?] Where [is the research] that you are relying on?" :) But perhaps a "real doctor" somewhere in Happy Valley could prescribe you an "authorized prescription" to help control your emotional reactions. :) For that was to be expected because the early Latter-day Saints did not find peace and happiness in Joseph Smith's day, either. :) But no matter, my friend, in the end it will all be good. You'll see. Just keep it under your hat and don't shoot me before you figure it out for yourself. I like to think of that peaceful premise in terms of "drug-free gun control," but I doubt Big Pharma would be thrilled about the revenue loss it would cause them. :) But to answer your question as to "HOW, exactly?" Joseph's biograpy (2012) "backs up" my "claim" about the "worst drug problem in the world," it doesn't, because that is your claim, not mine. I simply read its 766 pages and notes cover to cover once I found it on the Internet, whereupon I now understand exactly WHY the LDS community is the largest consumer of prescription anti-depressants of any group on earth. So you would have been correct had you quoted THAT as the "worst drug problem in the world," at least insofar as it relates to any organized religion I'm familiar with. But now having read that work in its entirety, it seems safe to say that that isn't the Church's "only problem" (to quote from it's anti-drug commercial), nor is it necessarily the biggest. But even so, it's all good because that's exactly the way it's supposed to be today. For IF Joseph HAD "disclosed [his] true identity" while he was alive . . . well, I guess if you were actually interested in knowing what he had to say about that, you would have discovered it by now. :) But still, it's all good, even IF you're LDS, or perhaps I should say, ESPECIALLY if you're LDS, since they are the only people on earth who could relate to it logically. And that's coming from my NON-LDS perspective. :)

Thanks for responding, Dennis. Your conclusions are as flawed as the premises you based them on: 1) UTAH's rate of drug use does NOT equal LDS rate of drug use. 2) Even IF LDS people WERE prescribed antidepressants at a rate higher than the NATIONAL average, you took a long leap to claim that equals the highest rate in the WORLD. 3) Even IF LDS people WERE prescribed drugs at a rate higher than the nat'l average, those prescriptions were PRESCRIBED, i.e. AUTHORIZED as being appropriate, by a real DOCTOR. So a higher-than-average rate does not necessarily equal a PROBLEM, any more than people taking aspirin for their headaches equals an aspirin-abuse problem. It could merely be an indicator that a higher % of people take something for what's ailing them. That's not necessarily a disturbing statistic, anymore than "More Utahns put Neosporin on their cuts than the national average" is a disturbing statistic. 4) Some obscure "biography" of Joseph Smith, which its "biographer" fraudulently claims to be official and authorized, backs up your "worst drug problem in the world" claim HOW, exactly?

@nrajeff: This news story is the only reference I've seen with respect to heroin use by a Utah teacher, but for years it has been well documented that the LDS/Mormon people (per capita) have become the largest consumers of anti-depressant medication, by far, of any other group of people in the world. Here are a few references you can find on the Internet in support of that statement: "Eli-Lilly dispenses 62% more Prozac in Utah than any other state." "More Utahns take Prozac-style drugs than in any other state, according to a study conducted in June of 2001 by Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management firm. The study indicated that Utah residents average 1.1 prescriptions per person per year of medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. The national average is 0.7." (For citations to these and other references -- which, for some reason ABC4 will not accept, possibly because they mention other competing major networks -- see: "Without Disclosing My True Identity--The Authorized and Official Biography of the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr.", ch.25, n. 72, at pp. 331 and 337, respectively, which can be read online or downloaded for free by Googling that title.) The LDS Church also acknowledges that drug usage as well. See: Tad Walsh, "Why high antidepressant use in Utah?" Deseret News, 22 July 2006 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/640196840/Why-high-anti-depressant-use-in-Utah.html. There are many more references you can research but I trust these few are sufficient to address your question, as the evidence seems to answer it -- at least in the case of a certain percentage of LDS teachers, whatever that percentage might ultimately prove to be. And since "[NRA]Jeff" suggests where your sympathies lie, perhaps you know America does not have a gun control problem, yet it surely appears to have a prescription anti-depressant drug problem, especially among Utah Mormons. But try to keep it under your hat while others research those facts for you. :)

".the LDS community is documented as the largest user per capita of prescription anti-depressants of any group on earth" Really, Dennis? Where are these "documents" that you are relying on? "...and because so many Utah teachers adhere to that persuasion, we might logically conclude that heroin use by the teacher in this story is only symptomatic of a much larger problem." So you're claiming that antidepressant use by teachers is the much LARGER problem, and HEROIN use by them is the much SMALLER problem. Okaaay. What brand of tin is your foil hat made of?

This story doesn't say whether she'd participated in the much-publicized training course for equipping teachers in the classroom with guns as a result of the Sandy Hook shootings, but I doubt that course considered the possibility of teachers themselves using hard drugs. Perhaps a teacher who attended that course could advise us on that point since this story now evidences that possibility quite plainly. In any event, I can't help but wonder how much Ritalin or other prescription drug she might have dispensed to her students WITH the district's approval, which is a rather common practice among school districts throughout the state and country these days. Adam Lanza is known to have been given prescription drugs to help deal with his autism, but the coroner has yet to issue his findings in that regard. Why the delay in making that toxicology report public? -- as is also the case with Cho Seung[-...], the shooter at Virginia Tech who murdered 32 people. Yet, there is direct evidence in other mass shootings that link the perpetrator with prescription drugs, and anti-depressants in particular. And because the LDS community is documented as the largest user per capita of prescription anti-depressants of any group on earth, and because so many Utah teachers adhere to that persuasion, we might logically conclude that heroin use by the teacher in this story is only symptomatic of a much larger problem. One of the better investigative reports I've read in that respect makes me think that the last thing I'd want is for my grandkids to be in a classroom with an armed teacher addicted to prescription anti-depressants. But you can read that report for yourself by copying and pasting the following link into your browser and draw your own conclusions. I only offer it for whatever it might be worth: http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/01/the-giant-gaping-hole-in-sandy-hook-reporting/#g KTVUYpXKsaXkKt1.99

Obviously, this person NEEDS help! Most Addicts do. Unfortunately, narcotics affect way too many people in our society. Arguably, there are many reasons associated with why this is. Suffice to say, I believe her having all this stuff so readily available to finding it was a way in which she was calling for "Help." It is good the effect of her problem has not caused a great compromise of the children's safety. Now that this Teacher's problem has been recognized, let's us now Help her!