Celebrities and Drug Abuse: A Vicious, Endless Cycle

Well, this is it. I have never wanted to touch on this subject for mainly two reasons. The first is I have sort of swear to myself to never expose myself to drug abuse and misconduct, and the other is, when it comes to news or anything involving today’s celebrities in the entertainment industry, I tend to ignore it. Partly because of all of those news contents contained nothing but controversies and sensations being served on an oversized silver platter to people that instead in need for quality journalism. But with recent case, I have to point out how celebrities often caught (in few instances, caught red-handed) using illegal drugs or abusing drugs that otherwise require a prescription from the doctor. This is a universal case, even Indonesian celebrities once convicted with these highly addictive substances. 

            Let’s start with the recent raid conducted at Thamrin City Apartment in West Jakarta. During the bust, the West Jakarta Police’s Narcotics Force arrested 4 suspects, one of them being the former singer turned controversial public figure Lucinta Luna. Subsequent urine test revealed that she is positive with psychotropic substances, and currently placed under custody at Jakarta Metro Police Department. But what makes her highly controversial then? She is known for starting feuds with other celebrities, like the not-less controversial Barbie Kumalasari, whose common-law husband, Galih Ginanjar is currently on trial for his derogatory statement on his ex-wife Fairuz A. Rafiq, referring her private organ “smells like salted fish” (they even engaged in a cat fight on one occasion). Another more-renowned name feuded with this “highly deluded Instagram celebrity” is Former magician turned Talk Show Presenter Deddy Corbusier. On one Instagram video, she was confronted by Corbusier, and instantly lost it when the former mentalist slipped, stating that she was “acting like a guy”. It is a well-known secret that Luna is actually a transgender woman, born Muhammad Fatah, but over the last few years, she constantly denies this, even when strong evidence being presented in front of her eyes, like when fellow transgender celebrity Melly Bradley post a video depicting someone that is similar to Luna recovering from what looked like a gender reaffirmation surgery procedure on her Instagram account. The allegations only getting stronger after a court archive from the West Jakarta State Court surfaced. In that statement, the court ordered the Citizen Archiving Department of the Jakarta SCR Province to change the birth certificate No. 9879/KLT/JS/2013/1989 from a male named Muhammad Fatah to female named Ayluna Putri, Luna’s female name. But in a desperate attempt to cover the digital tracks, she withdrew the state application on January 4, 2017. Only on November 22, 2019, she reapplied for legal status on her gender reaffirmation on the South Jakarta State Court. The application registered to the court’s database on November 26, No. 1230/Pdt.P/2019/PN.Jkt.Sel. She is not above being delusional either, once comparing herself to K-Pop group BLACKPINK’s Thai born main dancer and main rapper Lalisa Manoban. She even snubbed another Indonesian transgender celebrity Dena Rachman (At least Dena is being honest on who she is anyway) when being compared to her. Instead, Luna demanded to be compared alongside more established women like fellow Indonesian Luna Maya or actress Angelina Jolie. 

            If we talk about the most memorable drug bust involving Indonesian celebrity, I have to mention senior actor Roy Marten. Known also as the father of public figure Gading and grandfather of Gempita, Gading and ex-wife Gisel’s daughter before their divorce. He was arrested twice during 2006 and 2007 (his first arrest was dated at February 2^nd,2006, while his second stint with the law as occurred on November 13^th, 2007). His second arrest being an irony on itself. Exactly three days before the drug bust, Marten was present during an event organized by the National Narcotics Board, even gave a testimony on his first ordeal. He served a combined prison sentence of 3 years and 9 months from both cases, which consisted of 9 months of incarceration from the first bust, and the additional 3 years in the second case. 

            Indeed, drug abuse (as well drug possession, even drug dealing in that matter) is a common problem when it comes to these celebrities’ well-being. Not only some of them are busted, few of them even died from overdosing these drugs as well. Among many well-known names in the industry, rapper Snoop Dogg is probably the most well-known public figure known for his habit of smoking marijuana (otherwise known as weed). He was arrested and subsequently banned in Norway for trying to bring 8 grams of marijuana through the airport. However, he wasn’t the only one busted for weed in an airport. The legendary bassist Paul McCartney of The Beatles was busted in Tokyo with a half-pound of the drug, resulting in 9 days of imprisonment. Many cases showed that celebrities who use drugs extensively (not necessarily for long periods of time) would result in an overdose, which more times than not, lead to death. In 2016, the flamboyant, yet charismatic pop star and guitarist Prince died as the result of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, which is known to be a lot more potent than heroin or morphine. He was 57 by the time of his death. Corey Monteith also suffered the same faith as the artist mentioned above. the Canadian based actor was just 31 years old when he was found dead at the Fairmont Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 2013. His death was ruled as an overdose with a “mixed dug toxicity” mainly consists of heroin and alcohol. What saddens me the most about is death is at the time, he was just dating fellow Glee star Lea Michelle. But some are just lucky enough to survive drug overdose, just ask Marshall Bruce Mathers III, or as everyone know him as Eminem. He was hospitalized in 2007 after a methadone overdose. In his own words, he would be dead if he arrived in the hospital 2 hours later. His addiction mainly consists of prescription drugs, like Vicodin, Ambien and Valium. He is currently clean and sober for the last 11 years. 

            So, what lesson can we take from those stories above? It seems that when it comes to how humans cope with their daily lives, everyone has their own coping mechanism, whether engaging in hobbies that would relax them or just rest to recuperate themselves. But some of them, whether a celebrity or not, chose drugs as their way to cope with the hardships of life. What began as controlled prescriptions designed to make them feel better can spiral out of control if it becomes addictive, to the point of losing your own well-being. Prescription medicines can be taken with a direction from the doctor to recover from a medical condition; but taking it way beyond the prescribed dosage will cause an addiction, as some of these drugs might have addictive substances. Drugs that are deemed illegal (for some countries) in the first place (like marijuana, ecstasy, and methamphetamine) if being abused by the same guys, would result in overdose, which in turn, causes death. Just remember, some medication is best taken with a prescription and don’t take it above the desired dosage. Stay away from drugs, because your future literally depends on it. There are too many of my friends who died from an overdose (mostly alcohol abuse), and as a member of the younger generation, I am encouraging fellow youths to stay away from illegal drugs and narcotics. It’s not worth your life and your future by abusing these drugs. There are only two options once you fell to this hell hole, whether ended up incarcerated or dead. And both options are a lose-lose situation.