p thoughts and notices

Using drugs is, of course, fraught with legal problems. Not surprisingly, people being apprehended for drugs-related offenses will try all means in the book to both explain their abominable behavior, while also trying to limit the punishment they receive. In doing so, they are acting rationally, merely responding to a vicious system of rewards and punishment.

One of the main strategy used to limit punishment is to attract sympathy. This technique is especially popular with celebrities, as both their fans and a large segment of the press covering them is already partial, if not fully sold, to the idea that “their” celebrity deserves lenient treatment and a chance at redemption. A recurring theme in celebrities’ defense is the “fighting demons” analogy. Robbie Williams, Mathew Perry and Daryl Strawberry never actually did drugs. Their choice (if you can call it that) of snorting a line of coke was never to get high, because what they were truly doing was fighting “personal demons”. Given the well known link between the devil, moral turpitude, the seduction of drugs and addiction, it is indeed quite normal that their behavior cannot have been a conscious, deliberate choice. They were just defending themselves against demons. This technique is increasingly used by other, less famous people. Paraphernalia supposes that they have never been a research done on this but, somewhat boldly and unfairly, surmises that the effectiveness of this technique works better for Diego Maradona that it does for John Smith.

By accepting the current system, high-profile users are unwittingly serving the wrong cause. By attracting sympathy to their pain in order to reduce punishment, they are contributing to a system they could easily help change for the better. Robbie Williams won’t go to jail for doing drugs. If he does, it won’t be for long, and it might actually help him sell more records. A bank clerk might do time. Try a criminal conviction on your resume in this type of occupation, and see the rapid progression of your career.

Nobody wants to go to jail and people take drugs for a variety of reasons. Still, it is painful to listen to millionaire superstars fakely whine about fighting “demons” when they could be fighting the real demon that is prohibition. They could then sell more records, and put more money in the legalization movement (then again, with legal drugs, they could not be arrested no more, so they might be ending up with less sales…interesting dilemma!)