REALITY CHECK

CURRENT September / October 2008 11

A UN report thinks so ...

“They’re trying to make me go to rehab / I said no, no, no,” sings Amy Winehouse in her award-winning song Rehab. “Yes I been black, but when I come back/You won’t know, know, know.” These words don’t quite ring true : everyone seems to know about the British star’s nonstop battles with alcohol and drug abuse. News writers and paparazzi record each mishap on a daily basis – one journalist calls Winehouse a ‘tattooed train wreck’.

And now even the United Nations has got in on her act: “Amy Winehouse may adopt a defiant pose and slur her way through Rehab , but does she realise the message she sends to others who are vulnerable to addiction and who cannot afford expensive treatment?” asks Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN ’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

BAD INFLUENCE?Amy Winehouse

CD1 Track 2: UK teens weigh in on the UN report

Do celebrities influence

you to try drugs?

12 September / October 2008 CURRENT

REALITY CHECK

H is words reflect the 2008 annual report from the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Without singling out any

celebrities by name, for the first time ever the report claims that drug-abusing singers, actors and sport stars glamorise drug use – especially cocaine. And they encourage impressionable teens to use drugs: “Celebrity drug offenders can profoundly influence attitudes, values and behaviour towards drug abuse, particularly among young people,” the report states.

What’s more, it claims, the criminal justice system treats celebs far more leniently than ordinary offenders, who often face stiff penalties and even jail time: “Celebrities should not be treated any more leniently than any other non-celebrity,” says the report’s author Hamid Ghodse.

Special treatment?While the song Rehab describes Winehouse’s refusal to enter a rehabilitation centre, she has in fact checked herself into rehab several times without success. And while she’s been arrested more than once for suspected drug possession, Winehouse has so far escaped with little more than a fine.

Amy is not alone: in 2005, British tabloids splashed front-page photos of supermodel Kate Moss using cocaine – yet she was never charged with possession of an illegal drug. Instead, she voluntarily entered rehab, and her career has thrived since the publicity. Unlike Winehouse and Moss, British

“Celebrities

“The UN is

should not be treated

not looking at real people

any more leniently than

trying to deal with

any other non-celebrity”

real problems”

singer Pete Doherty has served jail time after repeated arrests for possession of cannabis, crack cocaine and heroin. But in each case he’s received a brief or suspended sentence , and then been shipped off to rehab.

It’s this lenient treatment of celebrities that alarms UN officials: “If, indeed, they have committed offences, they should be dealt with,” says Philip Emafo, president of the INCB. Yet many critics question the report’s claims: “The UN is being somewhat simplistic in their view of how offenders should be dealt with in the UK,” says criminal lawyer Julian Young. “They’re not looking at real people trying to deal with real problems.” Even when charges

CELEBS BEHAVING BADLY

DRUGGED-OUT DOHERTYAs one journalist puts it, Brit singer Pete Doherty may qualify for the Guinness Book of Records – not for the number of records he’s sold, but for the number of times he’s been busted. Many critics think his personal life is so tortured that few teens would want to imitate him.

CURRENT September / October 2008 13

The United Nations INCB’s annual report tracks global trends and statistics on drug abuse. Here are five facts. Do you know the answers?

1 The number of people worldwide between 15 and 64 who have used an illegal drug at least once is:

a) 100 million b) 150 million c) 200 million

2 According to the UN report, the world’s most widely abused drug is:

a) cocaine b) amphetamines c) cannabis

3 The number of cannabis users in the world aged 16-64 is:

a) 10 million b) 80 million c) 160 million

4 The two countries in the EU with the highest rate of adolescent cocaine use are:

a) France and Italy b) UK and Spain c) Norway and Sweden

5 Since 2000, cocaine use among 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK has:

a) declined b) risen by 50 per cent c) risen by 100 per cent

Answers Page 27

Debate It Do you think celebrity drug

abusers glamorise drug use and influence teens to try drugs? If so, how?

Are celebrity drug abusers treated too leniently? Why or why not?

In the case of any individual offender, do you think rehab is a better option than a jail sentence for possession of illegal drugs? Why or why not?

For one teen’s opinion, turn the page

WORDWISEto ring true (phr): to sound sinceremishap (n): misfortuneto slur (v): to pronounce words so that they’re hard to understand, often when under the influence of alcohol or drugsto single out (phr v): to select an individual from a group for a particular reasonimpressionable (adj): easily influenced by othersleniently (adv): indulgently or too easilysuspended sentence (phr): the lessened punishment from a court of law simplistic (adj): treating something in a much simpler way than it really is to take in (phr v): to deceive someone by a false appearancedeterrent (adj): something that stops someone from doing something

are proven against individual offenders (rather than drug traffickers), Young explains, UK courts almost always seek the option of rehabilitation rather than a prison sentence. “It would be impractical to jail everyone who is convicted of a drug offence,” he says.

Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, an independent UK drugs charity, also thinks that most teenagers aren’t taken in by celebrity drug abuse. “Young people are quite alert these days to messages in the media,” says Barnes. “Yes, they’re celebrities, but images of them looking tired and spotty, and their chaotic lifestyles can also have quite a powerful impact as well.”

And writing in the Dublin Independent, Victoria Mary Clarke suggests that everyone takes a long hard look at Amy Winehouse or Pete Doherty: “Because I don’t think that anybody, however impressionable, really thinks that the drugs have worked for them,” she says. “Perhaps there are some kids who will look at

Now go to page 27 for a language activity

Amy or Pete and think: ‘Hmm. Maybe I could learn something from these two about what not to do?’ … Perhaps, in fact, the UN has got it completely wrong, and celebrity drug users are the best possible deterrent for the young?”

Your drug abuse IQ

CELEBS, CLUBBING

AND COKE:

The UN report claims that because celebs glamorize cocaine use, vulnerable teens imitate them – and clubbing give teens a sense of sharing the glamour. Ever since the plunge in the price of street cocaine – down from £71 to £45 a gram in ten years – coke has replaced ecstasy as the leading UK club scene drug.

YOUR SHOUT

14 September / October 2008 CURRENT

Debate It Do you think that celebrity

drug abusers influence some teens to try drugs? Why or why not?

Do you think peer pressure plays a role in teens trying drugs? Why or why not? What other reasons are responsible?

Should a government or local support groups play a role in helping to control teen drug abuse? If so, what should they do?

“ The UN report uses celebrities as scapegoats on which to blame

Britain’s drug problems”

Does celebrity drug abuse cause teens to try drugs?

In each issue of this year’s CURRENT,

a teen speaks out on a subject that

gets him or her fired up. Here,

Laurence Vadra-Edwards from

Nottingham, England, reacts to the UN

Report that links celebrity drug abuse

to rising drug use among UK teens.

The recent UN Report mentions how celebrity drug abusers –

mainly cocaine users – have a negative influence on teens. I think it misses the point, because it doesn’t focus on the issues that teens are going through in the first place that would lead to increased drug use.

I’m a 16 year old, and I’ve never taken drugs because of any celebrity endorsement . That goes for my group of friends. I don’t think it’s up to celebrities to set positive or negative examples for

WORDWISEendorsement (n): support of approvalscapegoat (n): someone or some group falsely blamed for somethingbuzzword (n): popular word or ‘catch phrase’ about something

True or False?1 Laurence agrees with the findings

of the UN Report. T F

2 Laurence believes that parents should control the information their children have access to. T F

3 In some communities he thinks that peer pressure is a cause in the rise of teenage drug abuse. T F

4 He thinks parents who punish their kids for drug abuse can help solve the problem. T F

Answers Page 27

younger people. If parents think that celebrities have a negative influence on their kids, it’s up to parents to control what their children are exposed to in the media. So I think the UN report uses celebrities as scapegoats on which to blame Britain’s drug problems.

Within some communities and peer groups there may be a lot of pressure to take drugs. A lthough I haven’t experienced this myself – and I don’t think it’s a huge factor in teenage drug taking – ‘peer

“

”

pressure’ is the ‘buzzword’ for teens and parents.

If there’s anything I can link to the increase in drug abuse, it’s the ease with which anyone can buy drugs at the moment, especially cannabis or ‘pills’. This ease of purchase literally means that in most British cities, it takes just half an hour for anyone willing to buy drugs to do so.

This is not a problem that can be solved by a celebrity cleaning up his or her act, or by friends being more supportive against using drugs. It’s a problem that

can only be solved by the Government cracking down on illegal drug trafficking, through policing, and through community groups working with teens to help them solve their daily pressures without turning to drugs. Punishing parents, or handing out penalties like fines or imprisonment – which seems to be the usual way of dealing with teens and adults alike who do have drug addiction problems – just doesn’t work.