This website is created as a final project for a class at Rhode Island College. The focus of this website is how media regarding hard drugs and drug culture impacts teenagers. I try to explore some of the ways that drug culture is glorified - directly or indirectly - in the media. I also look at ways that teenagers are drawn to this kind of behavior without passing judgement or value upon the actions or habits of these folk. My interest is strictly academic and exploratory. While I have a personal investment in this information (see below), much of this website is based on an academic examination of what messages youth receive from the media including hard drug culture.
On a more personal note, I chose this topic for my project as a way of healing. In March of 2013, I lost my only sibling and older brother, Edmund Carlson, due to a Fentanyl overdose. In the few months after his death, it was extraordinarily difficult for me to deal with anything involving drugs or deal with anyone who had dabbled in drugs - especially harder drugs like cocaine, heroin (and it's derivatives, like Fentanyl), or methamphetamine. The more I tried to understand his addiction, the more I had found that his addictions had started in his teenage years.
Being in Gender 354: Teenagers and/in the Media at the time that my brother passed, and again this semester (Spring 2014), the more it seemed important to try to understand why there is a culture for drugs which kill. With our love for my brother, my family has gone on a sort of crusade to understand hard drugs and the ways which people become caught up in them as a sort of penance for my brother.
Edmund David Carlson Jr.
October 12th, 1987 - March 16th, 2013
Being in Gender 354: Teenagers and/in the Media at the time that my brother passed, and again this semester (Spring 2014), the more it seemed important to try to understand why there is a culture for drugs which kill. With our love for my brother, my family has gone on a sort of crusade to understand hard drugs and the ways which people become caught up in them as a sort of penance for my brother.
Edmund David Carlson Jr.
October 12th, 1987 - March 16th, 2013
Please Note: I own these pictures. Please use them only with permission. Please contact Jacki Carlson for permission for these photos.