“Throw 5?” is a frequent question asked at a college party. Typically one college student will ask to split half a joint of marijuana, which usually costs 10 dollars, with someone else. These type of drug deals are seen all the time and are embedded as a social norm, but it shouldn’t be this way. Weed is a common drug that is becoming legal in some states, but this does not mean it is good for you. In an article from USA Today it states that the more you smoke, the more you will want. Wanting more will lead to heavy dependency, addiction, and further impairments. Marijuana’s health effects are drastic and users need to become more aware of this issue.
It is important to see the connection between drugs and the culture in which they are brought up in. Drugs are either used as a recreational substance or used as a form of pleasure or distraction from reality. Different types of drugs have different “stories” because drugs have become influential based on the culture and time period in which they take place in. The use of certain drugs in different time periods pushes the idea of drugs being considered a generational phenomenon.
Nowadays there is a greater emphasis on being rebellious and acting up during one’s teenage years and the use of marijuana gives teens gives an outlet as an unsafe youth trend. Rapper Wiz Khalifa has made the use of marijuana a popular and recurring theme in all of his songs and interviews, he makes it known that he uses the drug marijuana regularly and expresses his love for it. Wiz Khalifa, had his debut song, “Young, Wild and Free” in 2011. The song starts off with the lyrics, “So what we get drunk, so what we smoke weed.” The song itself has a “who cares” or “so what” attitude to add to the use of drugs to be appropriate because of youth. There is one line in the chorus of this song that states, “that’s how it’s supposed to be, living young and wild and free.” This song mainly gives the emphasis on how fun it is to be young and make mistakes, which gives off the ideal image of the reckless teenage dream. This song is a demonstration of how youth and drugs go hand in hand because at the teenage age, youths do not care but youths are generally known for being ignorant and unknowledgeable about the consequences of their actions.
A drug-related text that demonstrates why drugs were brought up in a certain culture is the famous musical, RENT. RENT follows a group of friends from New York during the 90’s struggling with the effects of AIDS not only individually but as a community. One of the main characters, Roger Davis, is a drug addict. Another protagonist in RENT is Mimi Marquez , who plays Roger’s love interest, Mimi is also addicted to drugs. Roger stopped doing drugs after he found out that the reason for his AIDS was because he and his deceased girlfriend would share infected needles during their heroin shoot up sessions. Also, it is insinuated that Mimi contracted AIDS from previously sharing needles with others. Since the characters in the film have to deal with HIV or paying rent, drugs are seen as an escape and a small moment of bliss in the middle of all this other chaos. The people in this play were lower class citizens and the intake of drugs, alcohol, and other activities distracted them from their main problems such as paying rent or their own health. Whenever Mimi is accused or confronted with any issues she gets upset therefore leading her to go to her drug dealer for another fix. Scenarios where Mimi resorts back to drugs shows how the use drugs are seen as an escape from one’s problems and depression. It’s seen in other scenes how drugs are used as a way to handle issues or avoid them.
I think it’s important to see how millennials have been impacted by different time periods and generations. Although us millennials are considered better educated than past generations, I believe that past experiences and times in history have influenced the way millennials act and behave today. Yes, it is true that people change over time but they way people act to certain situations will always be similar. Events that occur already have expectations built in respect to these events. Millennials end up mimicking their parents or past generations. With unemployment being at an all-time high today, millennials seem to use this lack of economic stability as a reason to use drug substances excessively. This type of defeatist personality has been embedded not only in millennials but earlier generations. When times are bad, people seem to resort to drugs as a form of mood enhancement. We are mimicking the way our parents act in negative situations and the same thing will happen to the generation after us, Generation Z, will be affected by the way we act since our behaviors are extremely influential.
