The craze for drugs in entertainment industry

Many creative minds are known to have found solace in stimulants ranging from al­cohol to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin, forcing fans to believe that drug could be part of the creative enterprise. 

The music world may never get over the death of Whitney Houston, whose only daughter, Kris­tina, died recently. A few years ago, the indus­try had mourned the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who passed on at 50 and Amy Winehouse, who died at the age of 28. Before then, there had been the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Charles Dickens and Beethoven, creative minds, who ‘abused’ various kinds of substances at certain stages of their notable careers.

Locally, it is also an endemic scourge. Aside Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, notable artistes like Majek Fashek, Tuface Idibia and Gabriel Amanyi (Terry G) have admitted the use of marijuana, fuelling speculations among fans and upcoming acts that substances abuse may well be part of the success package in the creative industry. The type of substances usually abused var­ies according to status and location and ranges from drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, Lyser­gic Acid Diethylamide ( LSD), ecstasy, opium, alcohol and marijuana, amongmany other mixtures of these drugs fondly referred to as ‘cocktail’ by the users.

The glowing description often availed in the songs of a good number of artistes about escaping from real­ity can give an insight into why some of the artistes indulge in drug use. In his highly successful track, Easy Skanking, Bob Marley sang: “Excuse me while I light my spliff; Good God I gotta take a lift; From real­ity I just can’t drift; That’s why I’m staying with this riff ”.

For reggae star, Dillinger, whose album, CB 200, topped record charts worldwide, it ran thus: “But ev­ery time I walk in the rain, Man, o Man, I feel a pain, I feel a burning pain; Keep on burning in my bloody brain. I’ve got cocaine running around my brain; I’ve got cocaine running around my brain; I want to dig me soul brothers and sisters; I want you to hold me tight, because I’m a dynamite; I got cocaine running around my brain. No matter where I treat my guests; You see they always like my kitchen best; ‘Cause I’ve cocaine running around my brain; Cocaine running around my brain”.

50 Cent in his said: “Cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, mari­juana, I’m new on that greyhound from NY to the Carolina, paper chase different name, same face don’t catch a case, my road dogs on parole his baby girl’s 4 years old, we play the block pistol cop, you could shoot or get shot kill you for your crack spot take everything your ass got, semi-automatics spray, bust back or run away” While in Morphine, Michael Jackson wrote: “Relax; This won’t hurt you; Before I put it in, close your eyes and count to ten; Don’t cry, I won’t convert you; There’s no need to dismay; Close your eyes and drift away; Demerol… Demerol, Oh God he’s taking Demerol… Demerol… Demerol, Oh God he’s taking Demerol”.

For local acts, it is not a different tune. From Ol­amide to Terry G, lyrics have been ut out there to idol­ize the use of substances.

Terry G, in his song titled Free Madness, sang: “Be­cause I dey smoke igbo, e no mean. I’m a singer give me the ginja.” Establishing the fact that drug use is rampant in the creative industry will not be difficult when one listens to some notable acts on the reasons behind the fad.

Notable American actor, Johnny Depp says, “Drug use has less to do with recreation and more to do with the fact that we need to escape from our brains. We need to escape from everyday life. It’s self-medication.”

While drug use is associated with peer pressure, a sociologist at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ndu­ka Agbo, in a chat for this article noted that drug use amongst creative people is a combination of peer pres­sure, drive to excel and the environment under which they operate.

According to Agbo, the environment under which shows take place fuels the use of drugs. “Several fac­tors could make a typical artiste want to go into drugs. Of course, they are vulnerable because of the environ­ment under which they operate. While trying to make it in the industry, they must have come in contact with the bigger artistes adorning the posters with Indian hemp burning in between their fingers. Aspiring young artistes usually take up the career wanting to be like someone bigger. Seeing a Bob Marley or Fela Kuti with marijuana in posters is enough to make a child who likes their songs take up smoking of mari­juana. He would inadvertently associate success with that kind of lifestyle. It begins from there to the time he is established in the industry and begins to host shows. The ambience during shows is likely going to drive the use of drugs. Music fuels emotions. Studies have shown that some genres of music fuel the use of drugs. Songs in genres like hip-hop, reggae and espe­cially rock can fuel the use of drugs. The ballads fuel the emotion of love. That is what you get, depending on what is coming”.

2Face Idibia, agrees with this. Acknowledging the use of marijuana in an earlier interview, he attributed his influence on some songs he used to listen to while growing up. “I have never tried cocaine or heroin but I’ve done marijuana before. But I never took it to go on stage. It was just for relaxation purpose. Eventually, I knew marijuana wasn’t for me, so I stopped. Because it makes me feel like I am in another world. I stopped using it a couple of years ago. It wasn’t difficult stop­ping. It was just craziness that introduced me to mari­juana. You know how youth energy used to push one into things like that. In those days I used to listen to songs like ‘Rolling down the street smoking’. All those songs can influence, if you want to be influenced. It is not for me to advise musicians not to write or sing about drugs.”

However people in the reggae genre of music attri­bute the use of substances like marijuana to spiritual­ism in line with Rastafarianism, noting that the use of marijuana amongst followers is akin to the use of Holy Communion amongst Catholics.

Bob Marley in an interview about marijuana re­garded it as a herb. “Herb is the healing of a nation, al­cohol is the destruction,” he had said. Majek Fashek, who is presently believed to be in a battle withsub­stance abuse, noted that, “I don’t do drugs. I use spiri­tualism.

I’m spiritually-filled. I smoke Igbo and I drink. But I’m cutting it down.” Several arguments have however plagued the role of stimulants in the creative energy of thought supporting the idea that while drugs do not cause creativity, they can help the user to better utilize their own creativity, essentially by acting as a catalyst for creativity, rather than the fuel itself. of artistes, but the most notable seems to be the school

A psychologist, Edith Ayeni interviewed for this article examined the relationship between creativity and drug in the light of the motor engine and the oil. According to her, “Drugs were an important part of the creative process for these artistes and performers, but they were not the engine, they were the oil. With­out the influence of drugs the engine may not have run simply due to internal friction. With oil present, the engine ran smoothly, allowing creativity to do its job and create true art. It seems true that the creativity is still a process that only the brain can perform, de­spite the occasional need for a confidence boost from some extra chemicals. The artiste is still the essential part of a creative work of art. Although the studies do not link addiction with creativity, the high corre­lation between depression and substance abuse pres­ents an indirect connection. For creative types who are mentally unstable and tend to overanalyze, drugs and alcohol can be a form of self-medication, a way to quiet the restless mind. Many singers, who’ve experi­enced addiction, incorporate the dramatic highs and lows of their mental states into performances, pour­ing their emotionality”. With the artistes serving as role models in the society, what is being done in Ni­geria to get this class of personalities desist from the abuse of substances? Former National President of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria, PMAN, Murphy Vans Anthony said that the association is scheduling series of seminars to edu­cate the young members on the dangers of depending on drug abuse for performance.

“An artiste does not need drugs because the likes of Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Okosun were successful without the use of drugs. I personally look at the issue of drugs in music from the angle of Sa­tan and its power to destroy an artiste. At the moment PMAN will embark on an enlightenment to teach the younger ones this”.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA is however not directing its campaign only to the artistes. According to its spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, their periodical enlightenment campaigns are directed at everyone who is susceptible to the use of drugs. “We do not direct our programme to one sec­tion of the society.

They are for everyone vulnerable to the use of drugs- the motor park workers, the artistes, the street kids and the school boys.” Perhaps it is in this vein that face off between the agency and hip-hop act, Da­vido is degenerating.

Presently, the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency has set up a panel to investigate a music video released by Nigerian artiste, Davido, in which he dis­played a substance suspected to be hard drugs. The video of his track, ‘Fans mi’, in which he featured an American rapper and member of the Maybach Group, Meek Mill, showed Davido with a briefcase filled with dollars and another bag filled with parcels of a sub­stance suspected to be hard drugs. To forestall the in­fluence of this effort, the agency has set up a panel as confirmed by Mitchell Ofoyeju. “I am aware that a panel is working on it (the video). The panel was set up soon after the video was released few weeks ago. When our attention was drawn to it, we viewed it and we discovered that it was improper.

There is no moral lesson in it and he was just ad­vertising drug trafficking. In the video, he exchanged a brief case supposedly containing narcotics for dol­lars. He was displaying affluence in the video. If it (the plot) had climaxed in an arrest and possible detention, we would have congratulated him for partnering with us. But the way he portrayed drug trafficking in the video was a means to an end, which the end is a life of affluence which we disagree with. We are looking at the issue holistically. We believe that there should be a body that was supposed to censor videos before they go out. Those

are the things we want to investigate and verify. Was the video submitted for approval? If it was submitted, why was it approved, with such content?”

Interestingly, the National Broadcasting Commis­sion, under whose purview this falls, has not reacted nor deemed it fit to confront this act, which could of course, fuel more efforts in this regard the moment the video becomes a commercial success. Contacts as well as checks on their portal proved that nothing has been done in this regards.

While it would be difficult to make financial esti­mates about the losses encountered in the creative in­dustry due to drug use, there are strong indications that it may run into tens of billions of naira. For in­stance the brief efforts made in 2012 to resuscitate the career of Majek Fashek after he signed on to a new company, A Plus Entertainment owned by Hajia Amina Dangaji gulped about N35m without any com­mensurate returns on that investments. According to Amina Dangaji, “ I can’t really say the exact amount for now. But I know I have spent over N35 million. I have been able to get him a house and a car. His wife even came to me and spent almost a week in my house before they moved to Majek’s house” In some dire cas­es, promoters have run into problems, attracting liti­gations for the odd conduct of their artistes, who may have drug issues, due to cancellation of show.

The 2009 incident involving King of Pop, Michael Jackson is a classic example. Themed, ‘This is It’ con­cert, the sudden death of Michael from drug-related issues brought a litigation of $29 billion to the promot­ers after tickets and television rights of the show had been sold worldwide.

Whichever one looks at it, growing campaigns need to be mounted to sensitise the general public aside new artistes about the dangers of that attempt that may spawn many more attempts and death at the end.