It was breaking news; Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in New York. The Oscar-winning actor, 46, was found with a needle in his arm, police said. The final verdict is not in yet, but who is going to be surprised if another talented performer or artist died of an overdose or any drug related problem? Nobody – especially if alcohol is included as a drug of abuse, which it certainly is.
It’s not always an overdose, sometimes it’s AIDS from sharing needles or the meeting of an irresistible force – a fast car – and an immoveable object – a telephone pole. The results are consistent – death at a young age.
Perhaps it’s just an illusion, the well-known make larger news impacts then the rest of us; therefore, their deaths make headlines while the drug related deaths of ordinary people ravage loved ones but rarely generate a breaking news flash. Trying to sort it out is a chicken and egg problem. Does it have to do with the acceptance of drug and alcohol excess in the arts community; do they take their mantra of tolerance to the point where it kills many of their friends long before their time?
What’s the relationship to fame, to fortune, to peer pressure or the necessity of acknowledgement and acceptance by an audience? Maybe it’s the inability to cope with even a little failure. We may never know the answer to any of these questions, but to the casual observer it looks like an epidemic that has lasted for decades and many of those involved started abusing at a young age.
One thing, however, is perfectly clear; no one is having any problem getting their hands on legal intoxicants, diverted prescriptions, or the most addictive illegal drugs, cocaine, crack, and heroin. According to the LA Times, “fatal heroin overdoses have more than doubled in some states over the last decade and heroin seizures, an indication of traffic, are way up… In 2008, the DEA reported seizing 559 kilograms of heroin at the southwestern border; that more than tripled to 1,855 kilograms in 2012.”
There is an important message and it is this, if you believe that any control, law enforcement agency, neighborhood or school selection is going to keep your loved ones safe from the scourge of alcohol or drug abuse you are making a mistake. The materials are everywhere and social contact with users and abusers, sharers and even low-level pushers cannot be avoided.
Abuse starts young, a study from the Addiction Research Institute in Ontario, Canada revealed “the earliest risk of onset of alcohol (ages 10 and 11), is followed closely by the illicit use of prescribed drugs (age 11) and the use of hallucinogens (age 12). Children begin to face high risks for experimentation with marijuana and hashish between 13 and 14 years. Risks for the initiation into crack/cocaine begin at ages 15 and 16. It is believed 16 is the pivotal year for adolescents, who face increasing peer pressure to experiment with drugs and alcohol, while being “afforded a greater degree of adult status by their parents.”
They also suggest the age of initial drug use helps predict which addicts will eventually be able to stop their drug use in adulthood. The younger they start, the longer it goes.
In my opinion, the only effective early defense lies within the personalities and judgment of those young people and their sense of self-worth instilled in them as they mature. We have to convince them that it’s not cool to die young either figuratively or literally..