Darwin strikes again - this time, it's a lottery winner

This lottery winner was quite the loser. She won a bunch of cash on a Michigan Lottery TV game show, yet doesn't give up her food stamps until a TV station does a story on this - and she's criminally charged.

Recently, there was a fight at her house, and four people are facing criminal charges (not her).

Well, she's in the news again - she died of a prescription drug overdose: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/09/30/news/doc5068a5f8b0973158678228.txt

Instead of using her winnings to go to drug rehab and make a good life for herself and her young daughter, this.

You can't fix stupid.

 

She's a -6.

 

And she died on Sunnyside Street. The irony is writ large.

 

Well at least her daughter will get the money.

 

Don't be so sure. If she and her ex were in a custody battle over the 6-year-old son, guarantee he'll take his shot at the money, leaving the daughter (which nothing I read said who her father was) on the outside, at least a little.

 

Sad story on several levels, as is the statement, "You can't fix stupid" insofar as fighting a drug addiction.

 

Just found out she leaves two kids behind, not one.

And, Liut, the winnings gave her the means to get herself into rehab so she could have a better life for herself and her two children. She wasn't thinking of the two human beings she chose to bring into the world - only herself. And, one of those kids found their mommy dead.

I stand by my statement.

 

If the addiction was why she wasn't thinking of her children, I suspect a lack of intelligence has less to do with it than the illness itself.

Look, I realize you're not being insensative to this family. It's just that I have a great deal of sympathy for people with addictions. You're absolutely right, she should have gone to rehab. But I know from experience with others, that huge first step is often complicated.

 

Yes, Liut, that first step is very, very tough. But she had the opportunity to do better for herself and her two children, and she chose not to. It is a very sad situation all around.

 

In many cases, the barrier to taking that first step is financial. Not having that excuse makes my sympathy level go down a bit.

That said, addiction is a bitch of an illness, and there is no simple solution.