On the Druglink blog Harry Shapiro thinks about the role of celebrity in terms of cocaine use amongst young people:
the charge remains that the pied-pipers of pop are leading our young people by the nose leaving a trail of death and devastation in their wake. So how do young respond? A group from Mentor UK were asked this very question by MPs at last week’s meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Substance Misuse Group – as were listeners to the youth-oriented radio station 1Xtra. And what did say? ‘We’re not that stupid’ – and it is symptomatic of our patronising attitudes towards young people that we should think them so gullible. In fact, fans of pop stars with drug problems generally feel sorry for them and wish they could get their lives back together again.But what about the perennial charge that celebrities have a social responsibility to their fans? There are thousands of young people who dream of getting a record contract and making a career in music. They aspire to becoming entertainers, not role models. But for the very few who get there, they can quickly become entrapped by the media obsession with celebrity, snapped not only by paparazzi, but anybody these days with a camera in their mobile phone. The tabloids fall over themselves to get front-page candid shots. Who, you might ask, is doing the glamorising?
