Here are the top cities to get a fix for your particular vice. I understand that Tucson, Arizona has the highest incidence of Lawrence Welk TV addiction.
Among infamous Class A drugs, Des Moines, Iowa, was the vice capital for cocaine and Columbus, Ohio, had the dubious honor for heroin, according to an analysis by DrugAbuse.com of words mentioned in more than 450,000 tweets that were “geo-tagged” in cities with a population of at least 200,000. DrugAbuse.com is a site that provides resources and treatment on drug addiction. “People often hear in the news that a particular city has become a capital for certain activities, and more often than not, it’s something that can be viewed as a vice,” says Sam Deford, spokesman for DrugAbuse.com.
Denver, which legalized marijuana for recreational use in January, had the most tweets per capita for that drug, while Buffalo, N.Y., had the most for MDMA — or ecstasy — a drug that was popular at dance parties in the 1990s. Pittsburgh was the vice capital for alcohol, Albuquerque, N.M., was named the vice capital for crystal meth, and New Orleans was the vice capital for both prescription drugs and sex. “It’s an accurate reflection of people who tweet and are willing to talk about these things,” says Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center in Santa Monica, Calif.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-vice-capitals-of-america-2014-07-25
Des Moines Wtf? I’m not sure if tweeting is the best determination but still interesting non the less
I live in West Des Moines and don’t know anyone who uses cocaine. (At least, if they do, I’m not aware of it.)
Considering only 8% of Americans use Twitter, I’d say that study is rather skewed. Overdose treatment, drug busts and rehab program statistics would be far more accurate.
Masturbating-to-porn winner —– the city in which Nonanoymous lives.
Screw the war on drugs. Drug prohibition is both amoral and wrong. Why the fuck does the govrnment get to decide what drugs are legal or illegal? The DEA are a bunch of criminal gestapo thugs that need to be disbanded in total and fired. They piss away hundreds of billions of dollars that are stolen from taxpayers. We have more people in prison than any other country, and the DEA has destroyed countless lives and families. As always, Ron Paul was/is the only advocate for ending drug prohibition. At least, I’m guessing, when the collapse happens, the people who’s lives the DEA destroyed are going to get some holy hell payback on the DEA thugs.
@Pirate Jo, if I lived in West Des Moines I probably wouldn’t want kids either.
=)
(More seriously – that has been a hotel stop on some of my transcontinental driving trips – and while it’s reasonably clean and decent, it is definitely BORING with a capital B.)
@N8 – Our government has gone to great lengths to make sure we are all criminals and terrorists.
I can’t wait to be arrested for Thought Crimes some day. What a joy.
@Persnickety, what kinds of entertainment were you looking for that you didn’t find?
Ho! Ho! Ho! Persnick….. PJ gotcha on that one..
MA
I thought Vegas would have “won” in every single one of those categories.
Wasn’t trying to do a gotcha – I meant that as an honest question. Des Moines (and Iowa in general) is always getting called ‘boring,’ but never by anyone who has anything specific they want to do here that isn’t available to them. Which is okay, though. Some of us like keeping it a well-kept secret.
@PJ, I wasn’t looking for much of anything – it’s basically been a show up late, sleep, get back on the interstate early stop for me. I just observed that the area had the basic appearance and character of north-central Ohio, which is to say, plain and boring Americana to the nth degree. You head north and at least MN and WI have some minor hints of boreal forest and some amusing, if generally kitschy, roadside tourist stuff, decorative fake moose or other critters, etc. Go west far enough and you’re in the American Desert (aka breadbasket-while-the-aquifer-lasts) and it’s somehow less boring, even if more plain. It’s a problem shared with much of the central US, particularly from the Ohio/PA border to west of Lincoln on I-80 (or OH/PA to west of Topeka on I-70).
I actually like the Coralville exit when driving the same route. It has better restaurants and a marginally more interesting feel than I expect for Iowa. And yes, I know that much of Iowa is quite hilly, not flat.
Oh, you’re talking about the landscape – yes, I can see what you mean. The I-80 corridor isn’t exactly a showcase of interesting scenery. You have to head down to southwest Iowa, where the Loess Hills are, to see that. A lot of the good stuff is hidden away from the heaviest traffic. If you ride a bike and have an extra day, check this out:
http://raccoonrivervalleytrail.org/interactive-map/
This is one thing Iowa is really doing right – converting unused railroad beds into trails. The High Trestle Bridge is the largest of its kind in the world.
I actually like the steeply rolling hills in NW Iowa near, of all places, Dubuque. That region where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet is surprisingly hilly and interesting. Never been to the Loess Hills but will put it on the list. I’ve been all through the Sand Hills of Nebraska and find those interesting, but wow are they remote and isolated. There’s a pretty good local steakhouse in Valentine if you ever head that way.
I said NW but meant NE, of course…
“I understand that Tucson, Arizona has the highest incidence of Lawrence Welk TV addiction.”
—-Admin
Probably true. Lots of retirees in these parts. Nothing like getting stuck behind Ma and Pa Kettle doing 20 mph in an RV the size of Rhode Island.
Hard to believe some of this story. The city of Tucson is full of fucked up meth heads who constantly do stupid shit such as shoplifting at Target and returning 4 hours later to the same store and doing it again. The crime reports here are full of drug-addled dumbasses doing what dumbasses do best, dumbass stuff.
Which is why retirees like me don’t live in the city, but rather in places like the foothills of the Catalina Mountains. The incidence of dumbassery is very low.
AWD
How long are you going to hang on to the utopian vision that legalizing drugs will make everything better? The great majority of drug users are people addicted to a substance they can’t afford. They are BELOW the median income in earnings, if they have a job at all. The bottom 50%. So they rob, steal and murder to feed their habit. Or, if they don’t do that, they spend every spare dime they have on drugs and ruin the lives of countless spouses, children or others who may depend on them. Legalizing drugs is guaranteed to do one thing: increase the number of drug addicts.
Fix that, and I’ll buy into your legalizing argument.
SSS
I just ran that rant for fun. Not much conviction behind it. It’s a lost cause in so many ways. There is no solution to the drug problem. 12% of the population is alcoholic or drug addicts, and always will be. It doesn’t make muck difference the poison consumed.
Persnickety says:
“I actually like the Coralville exit when driving the same route. It has better restaurants and a marginally more interesting feel than I expect for Iowa. And yes, I know that much of Iowa is quite hilly, not flat.”
This would have been considered a lively exchange in the Golf thread.Or any thread after 1 AM. Nice going you two.
“Des Moines vice capital of Cocaine” BWaaaHAhaha. I live here and I don’t even think it’s even a close competitor to all meth & pot heads in Polk County.