Drugs, Alcohol, and Media

It has occurred to me how sad our society behaves when it comes to drugs and alcohol.  Drugs are addictive.  People don’t act like themselves when they are on drugs.  They are still known as that person, but they essentially have an alter ego.  Sober-self vs Drug-self.   I believe the media does a horrendous job of dealing with drug induced people.  Media coverage is constant during breakdowns and this just exacerbates the problem.  The media may report it as erratic behavior but the reality is a serious drug problem.  Read on.

Lindsay Lohan

No drugs

I think she is a prime example of developing a drug problem and having the media follow her every move which eventually leads to destruction.  This is a great TrueBoob (NSFW) of her physical appearance throughout her career.  She rose to the tippy top of actress stardom after Mean Girls.  The movie had a hot cast, she lead them all, and won America’s heart.  She was the Queen Bee.  Then she was introduced to cocaine? and probably got hooked from there.  I read a quote that said she only tried it 4 or 5 times and I think she was leaving off the hundreds.

Drugs

She lost her pure figure and ran rampant with irresponsible behavior like drunk driving, jewellery thefts, and tweeting topless pictures.  What did the media do?  They covered every single minute.  She’d go to rehab and then comeback with the paparazzi following every move.  This isn’t a typical lifestyle for anyone.  She has unlimited access and developed a serious addiction because of the people surrounding her, poor decision making, and drug intake.  Read this comment and tell me she was ok:

When Oprah asked what the big difference was this time, Lindsay was quick to say “Not taking Adderall, that’s a big deal.”

Guaranteed she used Adderall a lot.  A real lot.

Ryan Dunn

Ryan Dunn was a professional.  You can be certain he had driven drunk 100x before this incident.  Speeding while intoxicated was second nature to him.  He accrued 23 driving citations throughout his life, 10 were for speeding and careless driving, and three more were for driving with a suspended license.  Among those, 90 percent of which ended in guilty pleas, was a 2005 DUI arrest.   On June 11, 2011 he crashed his Porsche 911 killing his 30 year old passenger as well as himself when they struck a tree.  He was driving 130-140 miles per hour.  He tweeted earlier in the night a picture while at Barnaby’s in West Chester and that he was drinking.  Final details came in that he had a .19 ABV which was twice the legal limit.  A quote by the manager Jim Obrien, “He didn’t seem to be intoxicated at the time he left,” O’Brien said. “Ryan was not a hardcore drinker, at least not when he was here.”  Bullshit.

Can’t even tell it was a car.

The other thing to consider was it more than just alcohol?  Pain killers, coke, or any other number of substances could come into play.  Stories are not created most of the time unless drugs are involved.  A man finishing his work day, having a drink from the bar, and then driving the speed limit home doesn’t make the headlines.  This story never becomes a story if drugs are not involved.  It puts the media in an incredibly awkward place because it is their job to report news, even when it is caused by their favorite, unsaid, form of  news, drugs.

Britney Spears

Britney Spears is a phenomenal example of someone who got it together and who the media stopped covering.  Baby Hit Me One More Time and the school girl outfit was every high school boy’s dream.  She was the girl counterpart to the Backstreet Boys in the late 90’s, early 2000’s.  Her early career hit a pinnacle and a few years later drugs started her downturn.  When a career blows up like this it’s impossible to prepare for it.  A Midwest girl all of a sudden is the most popular person on the planet and the world is at her fingertips.  Drugs get experimented with and next thing you know they become a way of life.  This causes irrational behavior like shaving your head and bizarre marriages and the media eats it up and makes money off it.

Who is actually worse in this scenario, the media covering it or the people buying the information?  I’d have to give equal blame to both.  A depressed girl gets caught up in drugs and eventually self destructs.  Does the media back off because drugs are carrying these stories?  I don’t think so.  They only report the behavior.  Major applause though to Britney.  I’m amazed she has been irrelevant for the last few years but I suppose that’s because she became boring and sober.