Cleansing The Gene Pool

MINERAL RIDGE, Ohio —

A nursing home resident started the fire that killed him by igniting a crack pipe with a butane lighter, authorities said.

What more can you say? His self medication program was a complete success. He no longer requires any medical attention at all.

Rickie Raver Sr., 49, of Lake Milton, was on oxygen therapy, which contributed to the Sept. 30 fire in his room at Briarfield At the Ridge, Weathersfield Township fire Chief Randy Pugh said yesterday.

"Keep in mind oxygen is going to saturate on clothes and bedding," Pugh said. "All it needs is an ignition to initiate a rapid burn."

The fire chief almost got it right. All it needs is an idiot sucking on a crack pipe near a tank of O2. Fortunately the fire did not spread beyond Raver's room and has been ruled an accident. Drug paraphernalia was found in the room and an autopsy toxicology test revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his body.

Police are investigating how Raver, left a paraplegic by a motorcycle accident, obtained drugs and drug paraphernalia, Chief Joseph Consiglio said.

"We don't know if he brought it in with him, if his relatives or friends brought it to him, if there's someone who is bringing more to other patients, if it's an employee," Consiglio said.

I remember reading in P. J. O'Rourke's book, "Parliament of Whores," where the author quoted a NYC mental health official as stating that the drug problem in this country would end when all the drug addicts were dead. All our efforts to treat them and keep them alive are merely prolonging the problem. It appears that Mr.Raver is now a cured drug addict.