When we think of pop culture, many things come to mind. Celebrities, music, movies, and the occasional sex tape scandal. However, there is one thing that is so ubiquitous, we often forget its there; drugs. Drugs in pop culture heavily influence the lives of everyone in one-way or another, whether we choose to recognize it or not. From things like music and movies, to loved ones battling drug addiction. Nowadays, its become almost mandatory to reference drugs and alcohol in music if you want your album to go platinum. Around 90% of what is on the radio today is about getting drunk or high on god knows what, and how cool it is. Music fails to mention the negative effects of doing such, which gives teenagers a completely false, positive outlook …show more content…
The Wolf Of Wall Street shows a dramatized (maybe not) reality of Wall Street businessmen popping narcotics as if they are daily vitamins. Award winning shows like Breaking Bad are entirely based around drugs and the abundance of benefits they bring you. In fact, most popular movies and TV show plots have drugs involved or contain heavy references to drug use. Humans are naturally adrenaline junkies, which is why it’s no surprise that the most popular movies and TV shows contain drug use and/or references to drugs. Most people might think the media portrayal of drugs is far fetched, but I beg to …show more content…
Your family dentist might snort coke before he brushes his teeth in the morning, how else would he deal with crying kids all day? In fact, drug cartels make most of their profits from rich white folks, believe it or not. Sadly, the only time you hear about some sort of drug problem is when the news is announcing yet another young black man has been shot dead for having a gram of weed in his pocket. The reality of drugs is quite the contrary to what pop culture portrays. It forgets, or maybe even refuses, to acknowledge the heartache and distress that drugs bring to an individuals life. When you live your life having a loved one that struggles with drug addiction, it’s hard and sometimes frustrating accepting the way drugs are thrown around so loosely in today’s society. Just last week I found out a friend of mine from high school had died from a heroin overdose. All I could think of was how they probably knew nothing about the harsh reality of drugs; only how popular culture portrays the use of them. Drugs are a major factor of pop culture but it’s much less apparent than others such as the Pope or Chipotle. I’m almost certain that if every person dug a little deeper into what’s around them, they’d come across an array of different things, one of which being drugs. I personally don’t have a problem with drugs being used in popular media because well, who doesn’t like watching shows about Columbian
The targets of the drug war are certain racial groups just because they are of color, they are targets because the law enforcements have bias opinions about the people of color rather than those who are white.The people of color and whites are both as likely to use and sell drugs, but the people of color have a bigger probability to get arrested, searched, prosecuted, convicted or sent to jail for the violation of drug laws. The drug war isn't only about people of color, it is about every races including white. The enforcement does not look for the increasing of drug activity because But the law enforcement doesn’t focus on the high income neighborhoods in search for drugs, what they do is focus on the poor low income neighborhoods because that is where they think drugs are being abused. The drug policies are very discriminatory and attack those that are non white, or those who live in a neighborhood where everyone thinks drugs are abused there. According to the article “Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States” it uses statistics from seattle that shows a clear example of the discrimination of the supposed war on drugs.“A recent study in Seattle is illustrative. Although the majority of those who shared, sold, or transferred serious drugs[17]in Seattle are white (indeed seventy percent of the general Seattle population is white), almost two-thirds (64.2%) of drug arrestees are black”(hrw.org 1). This quote shows what a study found in seattle, that the population in seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drug being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most is whites but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are african americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are
Our society today, definitely has a drug culture feel to it because of the music industry, film industry, and the overall attitude of the world helps mold the teens of today into thinking that it is okay to abuse drugs. Today, a person can rarely find a song that does not have a reference to smoking marijuana, taking prescription pills, or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Within films, they are producing films about having the wildest parties, drinking with all your friends, and taking drugs without thinking about the consequences. The youth of today refer to partying as getting “turnt up”, which means “thee act of getting drunk and high to thee highest degree” said by Urban Dictionary. If this is the mindset of the future of this world, then we are all in for a rude awakening and need to address these matters fast.
Drugs have been a part of society since time began, although the drugs may have been in many different forms, and ingested in many different ways it still played a part in our history. Many people have lost their lives to drugs, and many have benefited from them as well.
In a culture with such diverse commonalities, the differentials that set precedent come from social norms. These norms set the template for what acceptable behavior is. Being known as having a melting pot of a population we can expect that the norms are influenced through religion, values, ideas, and self views. Deviant behaviors occur when these social norms are disrupted and acts are seen to go against what we have always thought as wrong or weird. Deviance is a broad term that encompasses the idea that we know what is right from what our neighbor does. For example, trends of fashion change quite rapidly. If you don’t believe me watch shows on television that reminisce about the 70’s 80’s and so on. Today we look at what was worn in the previous decades and find it hard to imagine people dressing like this now. However, in the days that style was popular it was seen as the way to dress. Norms change to fit what the popular trend is now. Deviance likewise counters with what is unpopular. There are far more serious deviant acts than dressing from the wrong decade; they are also heavily tied to the law. Laws are more inflexible than behaviors of changing times. They are intact from the idea that if caught participating in such acts you could face serious punishment and rightfully so. Let’s take a look at one form of deviance that persisted in our culture for many years.
In Drugs, Inc. Season 7, Episode 2: Hip Hop High the connections between drugs, drugs sales, and raps as a quote from the film is, “Hip Hop without drugs don’t exist.” (N.A, 2015) The main reason why Hip Hop cannot live without drugs is that it creates money to help many Hip Hop careers. Most artists in the hood don’t have the money to buy equipment or studio time, so they used drug money to fund their music. Rappers are using the drugs, selling drugs, but also sing about drugs. It then comes full circle when the people attending shows get sold pills or dope. The drugs become a way for artists to enhance their careers and get out of the hood.
Drug abuse has changed over the years due to the trends that Americans face from the encouragement of different cultures. The abuse of substances creates many health problems. The following will discuss the past and current trends of drug use and the effects these drugs have on the health of the individuals who abuse the drugs.
The war on drugs in our culture is a continuous action that is swiftly lessening our society. This has been going on for roughly 10-15 years and has yet to slow down in any way. Drugs continue to be a problem for the obvious reason that certain people abuse them in a way that can lead to ultimate harm on such a person. These drugs do not just consist of street drugs (marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy), but prescription medications as well. Although there are some instances where drugs are being used by subjects excessively, there has been medical research to prove that some of these drugs have made a successful impact on certain disorders and diseases.
Almost a century has passed since two revolutionaries have been born to change the world: television and drugs. It is clear that both drugs and television made their way to society at the same time, but it doesn't seem that obvious what is that made them escalate together. Some studious people say that it may have to do with the presence of drugs in the media, but it remains a mystery. In 'Crack and the Box' by Pete Hamill, there is an intention to explain the reasons to this phenomenon. Hamill accuses television to be the instigator of drugs. However, his statements fall into contradiction because the effects of television watching cannot be compared to those of drug consumption.
Sociological Imagination is the ability to understand situations and outcomes by looking at a broad social context in which we observe how we may interact and influence other people and situations. There are certain things within our society that may lead to a certain outcomes, but how we deal with an outcome of situation is based on the situation at hand, personal values, and the initial reaction of people around us.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
In today’s culture where rap music has become increasingly popular, many teens aren’t realizing what they are listening to. A lot of teens would argue that the music they listen to has no effect on them, but they are wrong. Rap music, especially, has had a major impact on teenagers in today’s society. The lyrics of many rap songs encourage violent and aggressive thoughts in teenagers.
Also 'Lucy in the sky with Diamonds' by the Beatlesinfluenced young people to take drugs. Some people would argue that popular culture caused harm to society through music lyrics. Popular culture was seen to be harming society because young people idolized the members of pop groups. An example would Janis Joplin. Some people were shocked to learn 'she died of a drugs overdose in 1970' (source G).
The media is also influencing more people to use drugs by advertising how celebrities are going through rehab, and they are using drugs. Men and adults are affected by this, and the celebrities are influenc...
Today, you only have to switch on your television, radio or open a newspaper or magazine to be aware that the structure of our society is being contaminated by the growing evil plague of drug abuse.