The cannabis culture has always looked at April 20 as a celebration of that certain smoked weed, used at p. In certain places in the U. In the musical world, drugs, not just pot, are popular subject matter.
"Eight Miles High," The Byrds (1966)
"Heroin," The Velvet Underground (1967)
Drug use in music has been a topic of discussion and debate since at least the s, if not earlier. As stated in the old saying ' wine, women and song ', association of music with using various substances go back centuries. References to recreational drug use in various forms have been common as the modern record industry developed, particularly in terms of popular music genres such as pop rock singles, dance releases, and the like. Social, cultural, legal, and economic challenges to the existence of music referring to recreational drugs have prompted several studies on the link between such references and increased usage among teens and young adults. Findings over multiple decades have had mixed results. Many complicating factors exist; in particular, a song that describes substance abuse in a depressive, emotionally blank fashion may trigger curiosity for one listener as well as revulsion for another.
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I n the latest sign of how the opioid crisis is permeating popular culture, the rapper Macklemore this week put out a remarkable new song about prescription painkillers and other addictive drugs. It forcefully calls out Congress as doing the business of billionaire chiefs of pharmaceutical companies , drug companies including OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma , and doctors who prescribe potent painkillers and enable refill after refill. But the drug has also been abused in and of itself, fueled by a vibrant black market and cash-only clinics that dole out the pills without proper counseling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not tally deaths caused by these treatments for addiction, but there have been plenty of reports of deadly overdoses from Suboxone. Still, many addiction experts say the bottom line is that Suboxone saves far more lives than it takes. The whole while, these billionaires, they caked up Paying out Congress so we take their drugs Murderers who will never face the judge. The makers of prescription painkillers wield significant clout on Capitol Hill and in statehouses all over the country. Executives at two of the companies that have been blamed for fueling the opioid crisis — John Kapoor of Insys Therapeutics and members of the Sackler family of Purdue Pharma — are indeed billionaires. The most recent such example, and perhaps the most potent symbol of the opioid epidemic, is the musician Prince, whose autopsy indicated that he accidentally overdosed last spring on the powerful painkiller fentanyl.
Follow Billboard. All rights reserved. With all due respect to Karl Marx, religion will never be the opiate of the masses. Opiates themselves have it covered—as do stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens. Drugs will always play a key role in human existence because human existence will always be hard. People use substances to escape reality. Unfortunately, they can also lead to addiction and come with side effects that are worse than whatever you were dealing with in the first place.
