UN Official Slams Celebrity Rehab Glamorization

05/23/2008

UN Official Slams Celebrity Rehab Glamorization

Celebrity drug use and subsequent addiction treatment center visits have become so popularized that people have decided to cash in on it with shows such as "Celebrity Rehab".  The problem is based on the publicised failures of most traditional forms of treatment, along with the glamorization of drug use by some celebrities and the media has become somewhat of a joke instead of the serious situation that it actually is.

"Coke-snorting fashionistas are not only damaging their noses and brains -- they are contributing to state failure on the other side of the world," wrote Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime. The comments, published in an opinion piece in the British newspaper The Observer, was the second time in two weeks that the United Nations has criticized celebrity drug use. Cashing in on the misfortunes of others, or making dangerous drug use seem trivial, only popularizes it even more in the eyes of impressionable young people all over the world.

The message they receive from these irresponsible celebrities and media outlets is that it’s entertainment while the life-threatening consequences get pushed pack into the shadows instead of being brought into the forefront.

Most people can't afford $100,000 + exotic rehab centers that are more like spa retreats, they rarely work and have no identifiable success rates to speak of.

Cocaine

Meth

Heroin

Marijuana

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