Finding Representation is Not Hard
These are only a few of the resources within popular culture which discuss hard drug usage. These are books, magazines, music videos, songs, artists, movies, and other forms of consumable media featuring drugs as a main part of their narrative. These are what I found within an hour or two of looking. Many of these are forms of media that I have been consuming for several years. What we see is that drugs occur over race, class, and gender lines, but that the ways which drugs are depicted varies upon these intersecting points.
- South Park - "Drugs are Bad" and "Mackey Smokes Pot" and "Towelyey"
- Against Me! - "Thrash Unreal"
- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- Marilyn Manson - "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)"
- Nine Inch Nails - "The Perfect Drug"
- A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (2003)
- Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
- Intervention (2005 - )
- Hunter Thomas
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
- Scarface (1983)
- Blow (2001)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Trainspotting (1996)
- SLC Punk (1998)
- Gym Class Heroes - "Pillmatic"
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
- American Gangster (2007)
- City by the Sea (2002)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Justin Timberlake - "Losing my Way"
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- Black Swan (2010)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- The Cider House Rules (1999)
- Rent (1991, 2005)
- Walk The Line (2005)
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2014)
Celebrities and Folks Known for Their Hard Drug Abuse (A Short List)
Please note that not all of the Deceased died of drug related activities. Most, however, did.
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What do make of this, then? If nearly half of the listed celebrities have died as a complication due to drugs, why is there a continuance of drug culture? All of the above listed artists are known by their fans at the very least to be addicts or former addicts. Is it because the images we see are images of recovery from drugs, rather than the use of drugs themselves? This would allow for a loop hole in the hard drug image - if drugs don't look as dangerous as they are (due to the depictions of more recovery than tragedy), then maybe they aren't as hyped up as everyone thinks they are.