Allen Ray McGrew, 41, was found laying in the road. He put a firework on his head, and it exploded while on his head, causing massive head injuries, officials said.

His wife, Paige McGrew, said her husband had been drinking since 6 p.m.

See, Florida? It’s not just you. Americans get drunk and do insanely stupid shit everywhere else in the country too.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      We tried regulating alcohol and it was an abysmal failure. I doubt there’s much motivation to repeat the 1920s.

      • Fermion@feddit.nl
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        But we’re doing so many other great roaring 20’s things. Just look at the meteoric rise of the S&P 500.

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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        4 months ago

        sure, but thats no reason to just not try anything. maybe if it were treated as a healthcare problem instead of a policing issue.

        of course, that would require the united states to actually care about its human citizens enough to pay for their well-being.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          Honestly, the only thing I can think of that could work would be what happened with cigarettes- a combination of significantly rising prices and an alternative to the original addiction (vaping, which is, at least in theory, safer). Some people claim that legal cannabis fills the second goal, but it’s a hell of a lot more expensive than cheap beer, at least in Illinois. And good luck convincing beverage outlets into pricing people out of cheap beer.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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              4 months ago

              So unlike what happens with every other such tax, like on cannabis or tobacco? Because none of them get spent on good things.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                  So you want the money wasted this time too?

                  Again, cannabis and tobacco taxes don’t end up being spent on what they claim they will be spent on. They go into slush funds and get parceled out on bullshit.

                  If they did things like help with education and such, I’d agree. But they don’t.

                  • Wiz@midwest.social
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                    4 months ago

                    Tax money is generally not “wasted”. It goes towards services for the state. So, yeah - I would not mind if there were additional taxes placed on fireworks to go into the state’s coffers, to come back to me as road work or universities.

      • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
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        That wasn’t regulation that was prohibition. Alcohol is currently regulated (21+ or 19 if you’re Canadian)

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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      i love how everyone wants to regulate this dangerous thing

      What wonderland do you live in? lol. I want to go to there.

      Fireworks used to be heavily regulated in my area, but in recent years, you can basically get anything short of a stick of dynamite from any of the hundreds of pop-up tents that set up in shopping plaza parking lots every June 1.

      I don’t get a good night’s sleep from mid-June through September because of neighborhood kids setting the damn things off every night until 2 - 2:30 AM.

    • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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      You know at some point I think we have to accept a certain percentage of the population is going to be lost to their own stupidity.

      Nothing against this dude or his family. But placing any lit firework or explosive on your head is basically asking for at least a traumatic head injury, if not death.

      I’ve been fucked up on a number of substances both legal and not so legal. I don’t think I’ve ever had an idea I’d be willing to act on while fucked up that’s nearly as self destructive as that.

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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        oh, i agree. but the blind eye we turn towards the availability of alcohol which kills untold thousands per year is a little insane. it kills far more than fireworks, and a lot of innocent bystanders at that.

        marijuana is a registered drug because of its ‘danger’, but alcohol is not. it would be comical if it wasnt so sad

        • Pandantic [they/them]@midwest.social
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          marijuana is a registered drug because of its ‘danger’, but alcohol is not. it would be comical if it wasnt so sad

          Worse, it’s a “schedule 1” drug, which is defined as having:

          • a high potential for abuse.
          • no currently accepted medical treatment use in the U.S. Drugs.com

          Interestingly enough, that definition fits one of these substances, but it’s not pot.

        • Downcount@lemmy.world
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          I’m with you about how strange and bad our acceptance towards alcohol is. But that doesn’t make fireworks automatically a good thing.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      I’d go so far as to bar the consumption and sale!

      Hi, I’m Carrie A. Nation, and in this essay and with this hatchet, I will…