The Effects of Drug use by Celebrities upon Young People’s Drug Use and Perceptions of Use.

Article By: Karl Witty (NCCDP Researcher)

An interesting article...

As recently as a century ago, the range of people who had the power to influence adolescent socialisation was limited to the relatives, peers, neighbours and teachers, with parents occupying the primary position of authority (Giles and Maltby, 2004). Young people in the UK today watch on average 2.8 hours of television per day, 82% of young people use the internet daily and 77% of 16-24 year olds read a newspaper during the week (Drugscope, 2005). The growth of the mass media and its use by young people has thus opened the floodgates to this previously highly exclusive collection of figures of influence. Boon and Lomore’s 2001 study into admirer-celebrity relationships among young people reported that 75% of young adults had at some time in their lives had a strong attraction to a celebrity, and 59% of the young people under study stated that their idols had influenced some aspect of their attitudes and beliefs. Despite research on the role of the media and media figures in the lives of young people there is a shortfall of work specifically targeting the influence of risky celebrity behaviour on the actions and perceptions of young people.

In recent months the issue of celebrity drug use has come to the forefront of public thinking due to some high profile stories. Model Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use (‘Cocaine Kate’, The Mirror 15-09,-2005; ‘How Kate ‘Snorted Five Lines of Cocaine in Just 40 Minutes’, The Evening Standard 15-09-2005), Pete Doherty’s crack cocaine and heroin dependence (‘DOWNFALL OF A CHOIRBOY; A Brilliant Student and Talented Singer, Pete Doherty Risks Losing It All to Heroin. Will His Passion for 'Fiancee' Kate Moss Save Him?’, The Daily Mail 04-02-2005; 'I Don't Want to Turn into Peter Libertine Rehab King'; His Drug Addiction Forced Him out of His Old Band. Will Pete Doherty Be Able to Clean Up His Act for His New Project?’ The Evening Standard 30-07-2005) and also the debate over Conservative party leader David Cameron’s cocaine experiences (‘Tory Wives Ready to Ask Cameron If He Took Drugs’, The Daily Mail 11-10-2005). These examples illustrate that the issue has come to span the whole social and cultural spectrum, with relevance to the social elite as well as celebrity worshipping youth. Thus for a brief time at least the topic of celebrity drug use and drug use in general has been brought to the forefront of public consciousness, which may have implications for drug policy and research; especially when taking into account the strong young peoples theme in the UK drug strategy.