February 1, 2008
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Drug Use and Celebrities
I was watching Bill O’Reilly tonight and he was talking to a guest about drug use by celebrities.
Heath Ledger was mentioned with his recent death.
Britney Spears was mentioned with all of her recent troubles.
Bill O’Reilly said that he saw celebrities that were using drugs when he was a kid and it discouraged him from using drugs because those celebrities messed up their lives.
Do you think the death of Heath Ledger and the problems of Britney discourages kids from using drugs?
Comments (90)
I’m doing drugs because I’m so upset over Heath’s death.
not these days… kids are way out of control these days… and nothing seems to faze them….
No…but someone that I though the whole world of was a drug user when I found out and it discourages me from using it.
Do people stop having sex because Paris Hilton has herpes?
Kids think they are invincible. I never touched drugs mostly because I knew how it ripped families apart and how a little turns to alot.
Drugs and celebrities aren’t going to change my mind, I can’t relate to them.
I can relate to people my age who regret it though, and I’d never try drugs.
Personally I would hope so. It does to me. I lost someone to an accidental overdose a week before Heath died. It cemented my disdain for drug abuse, whether prescription or illegal.
Unfortunately not.
I hope so.
Only the Holy Spirit can intervene in our desire for sin.
I never wanted to take drugs because I was raised in a Christian home and I had no desire to do that to my body. I believed it was wrong.
I sure as hell hope so…but I think it’s so out of control that the kids who DO do drugs arent’s going to be able to get coherent long enough to want to stop.
Definitely not.
If anything, kids are more likely to do drugs because there is less emphasis on education, and more emphasis on becoming exactly like all the celebrities.
You’d think it would. God knows it does for me.
But we’re talking about a world where fourteen-year-olds decide they want to have a baby because Jamie Lynn Spears has one. So sadly, celebrities trashing their lives through or because of drug use will probably only lead to kids trashing their lives through or because of drug use.
We need to start treating drug use, not as a crime, but as a disease, like alcoholism.
NightCometh, so when I choose not to do drugs because I like being in full control of my mental faculties, that’s the holy spirit?
When I choose not to harm someone I’m angry with, because I believe that the initiation of the use of force is immoral, that’s the holy spirit?
You can only speak for yourself – do not attempt to speak for me, please.
A lot of “kids” I did drugs with never thought they were invincible. They did them ‘cuz how weak they felt.
Stupid “kids these days” bullshit is what clouds older peoples minds. Older folk, think about why you did all the stuff you did when you were younger.
I think that older people, even if they are in their mid-twenties are a bit high on their supposed wisdom.
eff no, i’m doing drugs because i’m so upset over desinflan’s drug use.
@la_faerie_joyeuse - a-fucking-men.
I don’t think it encourages or discourages them. They don’t care. People who are addicted drug-users aren’t going to see a celebrity death and think, “Oh, I oughta quit now.” No. They are self-absorbed. Their focus is always on the next high, consequences be damned.
O’Reilly is the man!
Nope – and drugs aren’t the disease but a symptom.
No, we live in an age of negatively reverse roll models. If you make a porn movie like Paris Hilton for example, you’re not seen as a skanky bimbo but rather become a famous pop culture icon. If you die of a drug overdose you’re not recognized for the idiot you are but instead become a martyr for youthful coolness. Heath’s death by drug overdose only endorses drug use for young people. The example he set as a celebrity and therefore role model was a very irresponsible one.
@ChrisRusso -
You take away the celebrities, does that really take away the problem?
Is it that it’s the attention, the sweet, loving, narcissistic attention from all the people around her a girl gets when she wants to become pregnant?
I don’t know all about that, but the girls(all twenty something of them) I knew that got knocked up did it for the attention.
If it isn’t violence or sex that the celebrities/media are blamed for, it’s something else. Like drugs.
I think it depends on the kid to a large extent.
i doubt it. kids today are stupid and spoiled rotten. they havent a clue.
I think that a lot of people who do drugs do them because it’s a coping method or “self medication”…not because some celebrity is doing them.
And I think a lot of people who don’t do drugs don’t because they think it’s wrong and unhealthy…not necessarily because someone famous died of a drug overdose.
Everyone’s so concerned with role models and how the behaviour of certain celebrities will affect their children. They never really stop and think of the casual conversations their kids have at school, of the internet websites they visit. People like Britney Spears often take the majority of the blame for the demise of teenage society, when situations like hers are but one of the contributing factors.
That felt good to say. Quit harping on her. She’s just screwed up, but gets to be screwed up in the spotlight. I bet half of the dumb fuck teenagers out there are way more messed up than her, but the whole world doesn’t know about it.
And yet he doesn’t talk about Alcohol, which probably destroys more careers? Come on.
Useless knowledge to be shared: I believe the addictive gene has been found and mapped in human DNA, a1d2 allele. I could be wrong about that specific… nonetheless, addiction, not drug use/experimentation, is a bio-based disorder. Share time over.
No.
The only reason I never got into drugs was because I didn’t know where to buy them. Oh, that, and I’m a penniless student.
Isn’t there still no evidence that Heath Ledger had a drug problem? As far as we know he overdosed accidentally on sleeping pills. The official cause of death I don’t even think is well known yet. If you’re gonna post about this at least use the names of well-known junkies like Pete Doherty or Lindsay Lohan (though she seems to have cleaned up her act now) rather than someone who may have actually been a clean guy.
Do people stop having sex because Paris Hilton has herpes?<li class=”itemtimestamp”>2/1/2008 11:00 PM
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adifferentkindofbeautiful
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Good point.
Probably not all that much. There might be an impact among their hardcore fans. But how many young girls were smoking and drinking because they thought Britney looked cool when she was smashed? Not many, I imagine. And I don’t suppose the average drug user cares much what she is up to.
@mahz - Ever seen that episode of (it was either Law and Order or House… I think the latter) where the guy was a serial killer, but he had a kind of hyperactive adrenal gland that made him extremely aggressive? There’s a delicate balance between biology and behaviour, and I think in recent times people are attributing too much to biology. There may be predispositions, but behaviour is more telling.
Everyone should do drugs. The more the better. If you die, good. We’re overpopulated anyway. Kudos to Heath for helping to solve the problem, although I wish Britney had beat him to it…
That is all.
@dreamsofsweden - you forgot your dozes.
No, and it doesn’t encourage it, either. I don’t think kids – or teens – are that impressionable, they’re certainly not as weak minded as people are saying.
People were doing drugs long before celebrities came around, and they’ll be doing them long after. Kids, teens, adults alike.
logicalemu couln’t have said it any better.
’nuff said…
People will always try drugs. Some people will really like the highs. Some might think, “WHOA! Now I get how Britney felt and this sucks, so I’m out of this scene,’ but mostly I think celebrity has relatively little impact here. I think it has much more to do with the people who raise you.
We put a lot of significance in what goes in Hollywood. Though it does predict some things, I think we give it far too much credit. If kids are going to do drugs, they are going to do drugs. I don’t really think it has anything to do with Heath Ledger.
I doubt it resonates with many young people.
@la_faerie_joyeuse -
I do not believe in personal truth. I said what I did because I believe it to be true. If it’s truth, it doesn’t only apply to me. You may disagree, and that is fine, but that wont’ stop me from saying what I believe to be true.
Doing drugs is the only way I could stand to watch O’Reilly.
Personally, Rush Limbaugh’s drug use discourages me from using them, because if there’s one thing I don’t want to be, it’s the world’s biggest hypocrite.
what an incoherent comment I just left.
I don’t think kids pay attention to the media, personally. I know I didn’t.
@Nikolais_apprentice - I’m with you on the balance between nature/nurture, however, I lean more toward biology/nature aspect…
Definately depends on the kids I suppose.
it SHOULD, but who knows. Kids are strange these days.
No.
im still doing drugs cause I still miss Chris Farley…..im hoping that its the drugs that made him funny….and I can be funny too…..
@adifferentkindofbeautiful - SHE HAS HERPES?
You know what the differens is between Herpes and Love???
HERPES IS FOREVER……….ah my poor Paris!
Heath being killed by a drug overdose is still inconclusive.
But that’s not the point.
I didn’t (and still don’t) do drugs just because I don’t want to. NOT because God says it’s bad. What a terrible reason…
<33
I would think not. Teenagers don’t always look at the possible consequences of their actions and they certainly don’t think anything real bad will happen to them!
It’s the way their minds work at that age…
Kids don’t really connect themselves with the crash and burns of adults.
After all, adults tend to be stupid.
Besides, the first time you do drugs?
They are REALLY FUN!
The last time you do drugs?
I’ll let you find out for yourself.
I do not think it is. I think people either pity her or detest the way she is behaving. I think that people will think that happened with Heath, if indeed drug related, will be viewed as sad and then people will forget and move on and carry forward. I think Britney has done more harm than good, especially with the whole diagnosis of Bi Polar now being mixed in. The whole thing is very sad. And really, Britney and Heath did nothing to REALLY teach the reality of drugs – being strung out, hurting the people you love, hurting yourself, losing everything. Those are things that people can relate to, people cannot relate to deciding to talk in a Brit accent and being swarmed by photogs. It’s sad at any rate.
no, I think it’s way too publicized and glamourized to have a deterrent effect.
And shame on you for watching Bill O’Reilly — your viewership can only encourage him!
Some people that comment here are retarded.
Of course not!
I think it would be absolutely awesome if there was a polling feature on your page.
As for the topic, generally when teens do drugs, at least in my experience, we’re not out taking prescription cocaine in a pill, or making meth in our basements.
I mean, come on. We’re not complete idiots.
@mahz - Common misconception. Behaviour is not “nurture” per se–people tend to oversimplify things. Behaviour is a complex interaction of genetics, biotic and abiotic factors in the global environment, and interactions with other organisms, which is what nurture really is. As for leaning toward biology, I’m a pre-med student so I understand where you’re coming from.
Horror stories like these did work for me. But not so much the celebrities, more the “just say no” propaganda and the horror stories of ordinary people whose lives are truly wrecked. Although the stories of celebrities dying before their time are powerful as well.
I think anyone with sense would be scared by learning what can happen when you use drugs. The problem is sense seems to be an increasingly rare thing. Too many people out there who aren’t affected at all by these stories, and I call that just plain stupidity.
People do what people will do. If anything can possibly be an “influence” in children’s lives, it is demonstrably the lifestyle of celebrities and I would have to think….it’s a negative influence. “They do it,” so ”I can too” is usually the modus operandum. Children are born naive and they learn only by what they see and hear and “celebrityville” is in their faces. That is not to write that is the only means to the road of drug taking, but it sure is a powerfully negative influence.
No.
BTW, have you seen those adorable Camel No.9 cigarette packs?? I was this close to quitting smoking, but I just HAD to have them. I mean, they match my camera AND my cell phone.
I’m afraid celebrity substance abuse glamourizes drugs more than it turns kids off them. Look at all the attention (albeit negative, not like that matters) they gain from it, isn’t that what most kids crave?
Am I the only one that has noticed that it is very possible that Heath DIDN’T die from drugs? every time they report it on the news they say “drugs in his apartment” not “drugs in his body” They also reported the autopsy results as “inconclusive” and that all the drugs in his apartment were prescription, not illegal (yes, you can still die on prescription drugs, but they do not deface heath’s credibility as illegal drugs would have).
are you asking if ppl learn from other ppl’s mistakes? heck, i don’t learn from my own ones
ps i don’t think heath did illegal drugs.
Most of the people I know who use couldn’t care less about celebrities or their lives or the circumstances of their deaths.
Consider the source, Dan, it’s Bill O’Reilly.
Plus, I hardly think those two are (were) on drugs.
However, did the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison…(I could keep going…)discourage those crazy kids from the 60′s and 70′s from using drugs? It was a Revolution man…c’mon now. People haven’t changed that much since then, either. But…it does depend on the person. Too bad O’Reilly didn’t overdose…geez. *rolls eyes*
Everyone handles things differently. You can’t put a generic attitude towards something. Here’s a question, Do kids that grow up in an abusive household by their parents grow up to be NON abusive parents because they don’t want to be like their parents? Sometimes they do, but sometimes they do exactly what their parents did. There’s no clear cut answer when it comes to personality.
You actually watch Bill O’Reiley? Yikes!
@NightCometh - Yeahh. Only not. I quit drugs because I saw what they were doing to me. Not because your god did anything. I can refrain from my “desire to sin” just fine, and I’ve been doing it for three years now. And in that whole time, no gods helped me.
Britney discourages kids from doing alot of things not just drugs.
probably
Unfortunately not. I never used drugs, among many other reasons, because:
1) I don’t put things in my nose – I even hate nasal sprays
2) I hate needles
3) I don’t smoke and the thought of smoking anything makes me gag
4) I get reflux from alcohol, so drinking large amounts of it would be out
5) It took me a long time to be able to swallow one pill and I gag when I have to take more than two at a time.
LOL I’d be a sad drug addict!
No. The simple fact is that drugs are used for the moment feel good times. Most of those on drugs are usually the live hard, party hard, and die hard kind of people. Thier self esteem is usually so low that they do not care if they7 live or die. They see the effects and think to themselves, “It’ll never happen to me”.
no kids will do it anyway. The biggest influence in their life is the friends they hang out with & whether their friends do it.
Unfortunately, kids think that it they are invincible and that things like this cannot and will not happen to them. If this were to happen to someone who were closer to them like a friend or a family member, maybe?
Sometimes we have to learn the hard way–by experience.
I hope so…some kids idolize celebrities so much that they’ll do anything to be like them, even harm themselves.
People are cattle.
“Most def, dude”
Seriously, O’Reilly is an ignorant, bigoted blowhard so I don’t give a fig what he thinks. When Janis Joplin, Hendrix, and Morrison died of overdoses, did that stop hippies from toking weed, shooting heroin, and popping pills?
i don’t think so
well, maybe depending on the person’s life….
No. I wholeheartedly agree with JJ_Ames.
I do.
I am so numb to any news on Britney any more that it is like a mosquito buzzing at your ear, but Heath Ledger is another story. I want to scream at him, AND to those that surrounded him, that his life was worth more than that. Someone should have stopped him. We don’t have access like that, nor would we really know if something was wrong so that we could help, but I am sure there were plenty of people around who could have stepped in to intervene. Why didn’t they? Britney needs help. Any other person in her same situation needs help. Heath is passed help, but maybe some good will come out of it because it is still too shocking to think about. People won’t rest easy about it – even more so when the movie shows later this year.
Screw celebrities. If we focused less on them and more on our own lives, the world would be a much much much much much much happier place.
Oh and I will personally do drugs because I want to, not because some joke who sings music or some dude that was in a movie does them
As a teen who could be influenced by the media, I definiately don’t want to end up like Britney Spears, so I wouldn’t make the same mistakes she did, but I think it’s unfair to use Heath Ledger as an example because, as far as I know, it was an accidental overdose on prescriptions that were prescribed to him and totally legal, not to mention for normal things like sleep deprivation and a cold.
The better question is: why were you wasting time watching Bill O’Reilly?
And come to think that I considered you of having above average intelligence.
kids are gonna do what they want regardless of what adults think. not all kids use drugs because “the celebrities do it” or because “we are just so depressed” maybe they jsut wanna knwo what they are. give them a break. as long as they arent totally screwing up their life let them experiement. everyone should have the right to get to do what they want atleast once.
they do, to a certain extent.
Not at all, because they’re “Idols.” These are the people that our kids are looking up to.
Britney and her sister both started out on KID networks. Now Britney’s messed up and her sister is pregnant at, what, 16? If these are the people that pre-teens and teens are looking up to, then I can only imagine that they must think it’s ok to behave this way. And when you think you know everything, you just think that adults are full of it when they say you’ll mess up your life.
You’d think it would have some kind of impact but I bet it does nothing.