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Opiods and the Music Industry
March 11, 2017 @ 8:30 am - 10:30 am
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WE ARE BACK THIS SATURDAY!
Topic: Opiods and the Music Industry
Join us this Saturday, March 11, 2017 for another live broadcast.
‘Real Talk’ with Big G and JuLā DuCré
“Making Radio Cool Again”
Crescent City Radio…music for your mind
8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Central
Call-In Number: 504-865-3536The federal government estimates that by 2020, mental and substance abuse disorders will surpass physical disease as a major cause of disability globally.
It’s Time We Erased the Myth of the Opioid Chic Musician
On 07/15/16, Legendary singer and widely-renowned Queen of Funk Chaka Khan checked into rehab, citing an addiction to the opioid fentanyl found in prescription painkillers, and said that her younger sister Taka Boom would join her.
As consumers of the news, we’re all too used to hearing about intervention and overdoses prompting rehab, but from all I can gleam, Khan’s decision to get herself clean was voluntary, and that’s nothing short of amazing.
“The tragic death of Prince has had us both rethinking and reevaluating our lives and priorities,” Khan told AP. “We knew it was time to take action to save our lives.”
Prince’s death hit many people harder than David Bowie’s because it could have been prevented.
Opiate abuse in this country is a multi-headed monster because, like some of America’s largest problems, it involves taking a long, hard look at the big picture. This isn’t just about addiction; involves taking a long, hard look at the big picture. This isn’t just about addiction; it’s about mental health. It’s not just about shady doctors who prescribe pills far stronger than anyone really needs to recover; it’s also about the pharmaceutical companies that offer those doctors incentives to promote their drugs in the first place.
Prince’s death on April 21 was found to be a result of accidental opioid overdose; medical examiners announced he was killed by fentanyl toxicity. YouTube
And it’s also about understanding the power of these opiates to augment our willpower, that tremendously sacred inner spark that inspired Prince to write as much timeless music as he did.
Prince’s death helped many people realize we can no longer accept the premise that a prescription for back pain will set in motion a trajectory of recovery for someone that ultimately heals. Even when they recover from the surgery, and a crippling addiction, and eventually, an overdose, there’s no consolation prize.
I’ve seen my fellow reporters tackling this epidemic with bravery and investigative gravitas. In lieu of bombshell exposés on a variety of dubious medical practices or legit conspiracies, I read stories of individual doctors losing their licenses, and the stories of the addictive personalities they claim.
We usually only think about the opiate epidemic in this country when it happens to people we care about (white kids, Prince).
In the music community, heroin chic has long been a very real, dangerous myth.
The drug was largely an urban problem in the ’60s and ’70s, common among the hippies, punks and jazz musicians. As such, a mystique quickly devolved into a chic, one quickly co-opted by the avant-garde Downtown scene and, before too long, the upper class.
Last year 27,000 people died of opioid overdoses, a number rivaling AIDS deaths in the ’90s and higher than the amount of people killed by cars last year.
It’s time for the music community to come together and acknowledge that the thrill is gone. The mystique has evaporated.
Remember, Vice started as a magazine chronicling the heroin-chic party culture of wealthy tastemakers and their emaciated friends. Shane Smith is a sober, fat mogul now, and Vice is a multimedia empire owned by a shapeless mass of racism with an Australian accent and opiate chic is officially on the decline in 2016.
When Zachary Cole Smith from Brooklyn band DIIV got arrested with 42 “decks” of heroin in his dashboard with singer/model Sky Ferreira in 2013, he wasn’t celebrated as a rebel by the music community the way he might have been 20 years ago. He was deeply remorseful and ashamed. Ferreira lost a lot of work and respect for even being in the car with him. Smith went to rehab, got out and started using again before again getting clean. It became the major thematic groundwork for DIIV’s latest record.
Zachary Cole Smith of Brooklyn shoegaze band DIIV was arrested with his girlfriend, pop singer Sky Ferreira, in 2013 when police discovered 42 “decks” of heroin in his dashboard.
I run into crust punks often, at shows and at bars, although I’ve never spent a night at 538 Johnson, and see an astonishing amount of prescription opiate abuse. The more time I spend with these smelly fellows, the more I realize how un-punk it is to be addicted to pills.
An opiate addiction in 2016 is a tacit surrender to Big Pharma, relinquishing your individuality and your willpower for a pre-portioned high designed to keep you reliant on its fleeting effects. Part of liberating opiate abuse from the “cool” mystique surrounding its culture ought to involve this reminder. It’s also the responsibility of everyone involved in the music community—writers, publicists, bookers, show producers—to remind the musicians they work with that there’s nothing cool about being addicted to pills.
Tunein tomorrow for ‘Real Talk’ with Big and JuLa DuCré for a Great New Show!
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