Drugs are a big part of life. Many people have been involved in drugs and as a result many people have been hurt. How can such a simple thing created by man rule humanity? The people are to blame. We as a society allow drugs to overtake us and rule our existence. I am not suggesting that every person on your block get a bat and beat down the nearest drug dealer. The time for that has passed; it is much to late for such simple actions such as those. In our evolved society of violent movies and drug-addicted teens giving birth to drug addicted babies we simply gawk a bit and shake our heads then move on. How do we expect justice to be done when we set the standard for justice to that of nearly nonexistent? With the properness of the 50’s holding a tight grip on young people it was only natural for them to have an outburst in the 60’s and 70’s. With such an outburst it led to even more shamefulness known as the 80’ and 90’s. Every singer and movie star either had done or was doing some sort of drug at the time of his or her fame and made it seem to be nostalgic. The people then of course made many ooos and aaahhs and followed in their idols’ footsteps. It was almost as if it was planned. The math is quite simple. Take one super popular star dealing or doing drugs add hundreds of thousands of fans and you get multiple drug users. You don’t even need to add water.
Now then we can’t blame everything on the stars, after all they are just victims also aren’t they? I would like to think that most of them are just victims. We as a society just stand around while some super star pumps needles in his arm, and probably the arm of a groupie, and we watch it on the television like some after school special. Since when did doing drugs become such a cinematic event? I really would like to know. I find it distasteful and somewhat annoying watching someone slowly kill themselves with meaningless drugs in the name of depression or some other crap that they know nothing about. If you treat a person like a baby then they shall act like a baby. Therefore if a person does something wrong and you put them in center stage like it was some sort of entertainment then they will act accordingly. No one wants to see their star performer loose his place in the sun, however if some other poor fool trips up then no one really cares and after all we need to put someone in jail to please the tax payers. I know I fee much safer knowing some pot smoking kid is in jail and that my children are watching a serious drug addict on television and admiring his every move. Who ever said money doesn’t matter was obviously living in fantasyland. Money does matter. Money is the root of all evil and we are the bearers. Money can solve any problem and we the people both rich and poor allow it to be so. Let’s take the case of the most popular drug user on the block for example. Robert Downey Jr. is a multiple drug offender and yet he is in his little Hollywood land oblivious to the laws we mere mortals must follow. I love the way In the News places such a tender tone in injustice done to thousands of other drug offenders and simply states the facts that “Under the terms of California’s landmark Proposition 36, Robert Downey Jr. will not be going to prison for his drug addiction, a court ruled today. The actor, who entered a plea of “no contest” to cocaine possession charges, was instead sentenced to one year of residential drug treatment.” Well now I feel much better that he is getting treatment. After all he is just a poor lost soul who didn’t know right from wrong and he needed a little help. Then again maybe he knows how to work the system and make his money fix his mayhem. Let us further review what happens when someone’s rich little boy screams help me for the hundredth time.
Leave it to a woman to speak the unspeakable. In Drug Sense weekly Szalavitz put it quite accurately when she said “Like Darryl Strawberry before him, actor Robert Downey, Jr. is testing the limits of America's tolerance for relapse to addiction. But this time- and in the aftermath of the success of a ballot initiative to give addicts several chances at treatment before jail sentences can be invoked in California-tolerance may be beginning to trump moralizing, and may well signal a readiness for a real debate on drug policy.” It appears Mr. Downey was not the first to play this drug game with the California justice system. It seems Mr. Downey had a roll model. Again another moneyman plays with fire and does not get burned. No one wants to see some super star loose his space in the lime light because of a few simple mistakes and that is just what these so called super stars count on. If you let one go why not let them all go as long as they have an adequate amount of money and are able to influence a mass amount of children at one time? Michelle Malkin put it best when he said, “Actor Robert Downey Jr. is California's glassy-eyed poster boy for the failed war on drugs. After numerous arrests dating back to 1996 and several fruitless attempts by the courts to rehabilitate him, Mr. Downey served a year in state prison.... ... Law enforcement officials may think it's good social policy to make an example of the actor's weaknesses. However, Mr. Downey's case simply underscores that the drug war is a costly and selective form of government paternalism that has done far more harm than good.” I agree with Malkin that more harm has been done than good. All we want to see is some well known person have a big problem and commit some sort of crime so we can watch it on E!. No one actually expects that person to go to jail all we expect is to see them get a slap on their wrist so we can complain and in some way admire them for their lack of effort in being civilized and giving a good show at the mere price of a few thousand dollars. Aronson Barton brings up a good point when he says, “Courtesy of the movie Traffic and Downey's recent arrest, we are in the midst of a new debate about drugs. This one is serious, focusing on how we should strike the balance between punishing addicts and trying to rehabilitate them. But Robert Downey, Jr. is not part of that debate. The actor has had more opportunities for treatment than most criminals ever get. Instead, Downey is part of a different debate, one we need to have no matter how much money is redirected from jail cells to treatment centers: what should the law do when treatment fails?” The law does nothing when treatment fails after all what do they care as long as their department still has funding to run some corrupt system based on the idea of power that the people have given them. When you allow a person to abuse not only the law but also the ethics of humanity then they become accustomed to it. When people flock to televisions to see who has screwed up this week how can we expect justice to be done. Does anyone even know what justice means anymore?
Work Cited
Aronson, Barton. “The case of Robert Downey Jr.” FindLaw’s Writ-Aronson. 23 March 2001. 29 Nov.
2001 < http://writ.news.findlaw.com/aronson/20010323.html>.
Malkin Michelle. “Downey and the drug war.” Drug Sense Weekly. 3 Dec. 2001 29 Nov. 2001
< http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2000/ds00.n177.html#art2>.
Newman, Tony. “In the news.” The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation. 16 July 2001. 29 Nov.
2001 < http://www.drugpolicy.org/lindesmith/news/pr-july16-01c.html >.
Szalavitz, Maia. “Downer-But is this Robert Downey Jr. changing the way the media looks at drug
addiction.” Drug Sense Weekly. 1 Dec. 2001. 29 Nov. 2001
