Boomers are a disgrace. They rejected the values of their parents because they were so much more "enlightened." Their self-destructive, selfish attitude led them to addictions that now haunt them as they age. Bad choices always have consequences, but I suspect the Boomers are going to find a way to blame society, circumstances, even George Bush. But they won't take responsibility now, because they never have.

Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll... nothing has changed for many in that generation. Of the baby boomers I know more than half are also involved in the swinging lifestyle. It's quite sickening really.

Sounds like the basis of much crime in the USA.People requiring a "fix" encourages cross border drug runners and many holdups in the states which is very prevalent, also in Utah. If the demand is there a society will never stop the crime. Iam not an avocate of legalization,however,that could eliminate most drug related crime and greatly increase the tax income of the nation. As far as fostering more drug use that is a mute point since the use is now doing well without legalization.

Many in this boomer generation did not reject the values of their parents. They have stood strong and true. In spite of culture hunting for the magic pill that cures everything. They have quietly moved forward, undaunted by the intense social war waged upon their wisdom and values. This group is the foundation of liberty and rule of law in America. Voices in a wilderness. Is anyone listening?

The parents of these boomers are to blame for this putrid generation and their lifestyles. Alot of them were live at home, spoiled rotten or deprived children. Like today they were lazy kids with no intestenal fortitude. They all wanted the easy route and expected mom and dad to pay their way. The parents then and today thought they were doing the right thing by giving, giving, and not accepting responsibilty for their kids actions. All about not accepting reality, instead looking for fantasy. Let them suffer for their choices, don't bail them out now. Sometimes life can be a bitch.

"Better living through chemistry" is my motto!

If you think the boomers are bad, wait until you see their kids (my generation). Lazy, entitled, and have no real talents other than video games.....it's going to be a sketchy time in America once they're responsible for maintaining our GDP.

Looks like this baby boomer generation goes one way or the other. What a bunch of losers.

Parents to blame, why is it always someone else's fault? Why can't people take responsibility for their actions? These are choices that people make individually, no one forces them to make these choices. Get real. The people that made these choices did so to be one of the crowd, popular, whatever. It's no one's fault but their own. Parents certainly are not to blame.

As someone at the tail end of the boomers, I have to wonder whom most of you are throwing rocks at. The boomers I know are the working people of society. We have the houses, the cars, and the big motor homes. We lived through the turbulent times and got over ourselves and went to work. They aren't looking to blame anyone, since for the most part they haven't anything to blame on someone. Nary a swinger in the bunch. We've suffered, and leaned from our choices. It's our kids we need to get away from the games and out of the basement. And yes, there are more than a few old hippies that came with us, reminding us that the law was stupid then, and now. And sex/drugs/Rocknroll? Sex is immoral now. Rock and Roll? The rolling stones lasted. I hope hiphop doesn't.

Ok, when is society going to wake up and realize that leagalization of pot is our best choice!! Not that I advocate usage of drugs, but reality is that pot is this country's largest cash crop and we spend millions on inforcement and housing offenders. How about we legalize, tax the living crap out of it, put farmers back to work, and pay our crime fighters to eliminate crime. People are going to use pot regardless of legality--this story proves that yet again.

and what perfect generation are the posters from?

The working, caring, honest, contributing generation buddy.

"Boomers are a disgrace. They rejected the values of their parents because they were so much more "enlightened." Their self-destructive, selfish attitude led them to addictions that now haunt them as they age. Bad choices always have consequences, but I suspect the Boomers are going to find a way to blame society, circumstances, even George Bush. But they won't take responsibility now, because they never have."

The above is my observation too. The same folks who got health care at the free clinic for STD's are conservatives who hate taxes and are against public funding up health care. The same boomers that attended colleges for $500 a semester won't support public universities. The same people who dodged the draft are military supporting patriots who wont pay for wars. They prefer to charge it.

My generation is AKA the "me generation." This is a more accurate moniker.

Baby Boomers get a mixed review from me. Big on neat ideas; kind of short on follow through. However, as the first generation to cope with being raised on a steady, life-long diet of TV and pop culture they have to be forgiven for things like the drugs. Chemical consumption was a natural consequence of the marketing pitch that one should always feel good in all things at all times; same pitch they're using today.

Shine on you crazy diamonds.

every generation has it's losers. My parents are baby boomers and aren't stoned, rockin' sex addicts. I think those traits more accurately describe people from my generation, though I suppose they could have learned it from their parents. Don't know.

RE: RE Curious....
But you still haven't said what generation! The early posters seem to have a deep rooted disgust for baby boomers but don't indicate their own age or group. I for one am a GenX'er and have a deep respect for my parents and their peers, all of whom are baby boomers. My parents (all four of them due to divorces and including the step parents) are lawyers and physicists. Their friends are in equal social standing. My friends and peers parents are all also excellent contributors to society.
I'm sure everyone had a bit of fun in their youth but have all turned out to be very respected and honorable people.
What makes you any better than them? Please tell me oh great ones!

And to add to my comment about my parents... yes, I know, they divorced and remarried. While I know some of you are thinking, 'case in point about baby boomers', please don't. I am happy they divorced as they ended up growing apart and being TOTALLY incompatable. They are now in loving and happy marriages and so much better off for it.

The baby boomer's only have their selfish parents to blame for their condition. The people who were born in the 20's had no morals whatsoever, so then their kids (The Boomer kids) took to drugs to forget their dysfunctional homes and life styles. It's a good thing that this older generation has mostly bit the dust by now. They just left their boomer children a bad legacy. Now the boomer's kids, the 30 somethings, have inherited and picked up on all the the very bad behavior of their bad grandparents....

and the big band plays onnnnn!

Bad Influence: the boomers are a result of kids that lived through the depression. Coming out of the Great Depression and a war, Parents wanted their kids to have what they didn't have. The boomers were spoiled.

If we enjoy another boom after the depression American is now entering, history will repeat its self. America wasn't the world's greatest debtor in 1929.

The drugs use issue in USA is much more complex than your journalist, and your readers percive.
In 1985 Noriega was on the payroll of the C.I.A. of the USA.
He was following orders from USA government, trafficcking drugs (cocaine)into USA.
In 1989 Noriega refused to fallow orders from the C.I.A. So, USA troops went into Panama and get of rid of him. The US media (news paper) presented him has a narco-trafficker who was getting our kids hooked on cocaine.
This is just one example that illustrate the limitations of this article, and the lack of professional ethic of the paper's editors.
The drug that kills the major numbers of Americans is tabacco, death from tabacco far outweight deaths from all hard drugs combine.
The revolution of the Americans in the sixties was much more than smoking marihuana.

@ CURIOUS 12:15 Just because a person is a doctor and lawyer doesn't make them a contributor to society any more then the mailman or garbage pickup guy. There are probably plenty of pot smoking lawyers out there that are a negative impact on society.
There isn't one single generation to blame, but the baby boomers are so MANY that it's easy to point to them for problems. I'm just worreid the Social Security pouring out of my paycheck each month will take care of them... but what about generations to follow? That isn't the baby boomer's fault, but it is a concern of mine.
I'm 24 and find that my generation's main problem is a dwindling respect for anything and everything. No respect for those who came before them. No respect for the country. No respect anything.

Ten years from now when some one else than republicans re-do these studies we will find out how fraudulent they are.
The questions to answer and to publish are:
Why Americans are so inclinated to use drugs?
Is this a disease of democracy and freedom?
Is this a failure of the rules of law in USA?
How do USA compare with other so called highly industrialized democratic nations?
This article pretend to manipulate public opinion from journalists and editors driven by their religious and political beliefs.
Why to make the "scape goat" of one generation for the capitalistc system inhereted characteristics?

Re; No bad influence
Maybe you were one of the lucky ones, but the ones that me and my friends have known were all the honky tonk weirdos! And their boomer off springs payed the price for those parents who were always complaining about how bad things were for them, but spending what money they had on themselves. They only hoped that one day, their dysfunctional boomer kids, that they had raised, would take care of them in the end. However, they are where they should be, and in the old foggie homes.

The Boomers were the first generation to benefit from the birth control pill and the sexual revolution. We had the best of all worlds, education that freed us from your smothering religion, free sex without fear of consequences (since it was before AIDS). I have no regrets. You are all just jealous that you will never enjoy what we had. And we don't want your sorry futures either in a world that is now overcrowded, polluted, and MUCH less interesting.

The statistics in this article are incomplete, but I will point out that it looks like, overall, less than 5% of Americans in their 50s used any illegal drugs at all. This hardly seems "booming" to me.

Also, based on the figures for the teenagers, it appears likely that the majority of those in their 50s who do use drugs use only marijuana. Illegal? Yes. A real problem for most users or society? Not really.

Unfortunately it is these self indulgent, immature, inane idiots have learned nothing since the 1960s and most certainly earned the nickname The "Worst Generation".

Too bad for the majority (I hope!) of that generation who never abused drugs and have lead purposeful lives and grown up.

I am glad McCain's wife saved us some of the stash she stole from the charity.

She has my vote.

Seriously, what else would you expect after 8 years of BUSH and a possible 4 more years of BUSh / McCain?

Some of us EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES have no other way of coping!

My goodness. Such vitriol on this thread. I had to take a double-take in the mirror and make sure I was growing horns as I am also from the Baby-boomer generation. "self indulgent, immature, inane idiots" indeed.

Thank you all for stereotyping me into a group of people you obviously know not much about: the computer, laptops, genetic engineering, fighting a useless war in a backwater country called Viet Nam because our leaders told us to go, cloning, and a plethora of other wondrous medical advances are all just a fraction-of-a-fraction of the accomplishments my generation has accomplished.

I wonder how you will fare.

The one thing I am truly horrified about is the fact that as we were sent so many years ago into a vicious and hopeless war, I would have never dreamed this same generation would ask American sons and daughters to participate in the same type of hideous conflict.

For that I am deeply ashamed.

Personally, I like the idea of making marijuana legal, especially for baby-boomers, and older. They don't have all that much longer to live, and they deserve to have their last days more comfortable. Cancer patients, in particular, could benefit from marijuana, yet they are denied. This is one unnecessary law that really should be changed.

Ahhh yes, the Liberal Mantra: "Let me make my own choices without any interference." But then, when it's time to pay the consequences, "I want someone else to pay for it."

Sorry, no sale. You want your rights? Don't ask me to split the bill!

Great. The rest of us can split their social security if they die young enough.

It's nice that we had a baby boomer, delinquent president like Bill Clinton, who never inhaled. What a farce!

I'm a baby boomer who never took drugs, and I am NOT a liberal. I think you have some of us confused with the 30 something age group, and quite selfish as well). And I have worked hard for my retirement --THANK YOU!!!

Hippy is an establishment label for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible members of the turned-on underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American Life.

Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstasy) 1967

i'm a baby boomer who is a proud addict and you'll never take my drugs away from me. it's not any different from some genx person who has to go to starbucks everyday.