I have no idea when drugs became cool again—cool not in a niche, esoteric sense, but in a general, mainstream sense. Maybe they always have been. Maybe I am just a product of a generation raised on D.A.R.E campaigns in a post-War-on-Drugs world. But for as long as I can remember, there has been a collective obsession with chaotic, drug-addled narratives, usually led by a morally ambiguous protagonist with biting sarcasm.
We pore over episodes of BoJack Horseman and laugh at the quaalude sequence from The Wolf of Wall Street (which is actually quite funny). Hunter S. Thompson finally revealed his daily substance routine. Psychedelic music experienced a revival when Tame Impala shot to popularity following the release of Currents in 2015. In these examples, drugs act as a catalyst for movement (physical or metaphorical): we’re moved to think that drugs push inspiration and self-improvement, and that generally, they are something to be enjoyed. But the influence of drugs within media goes deeper than surface level consumption; the latent effects of their depiction can also be observed through the narrative roles they serve.
As they are portrayed in the media, drugs not only have innate value (i.e. the power of creating a high), but they also exist to serve some larger narrative aim. Often, drugs are the perfect vehicle for carrying damage. In Euphoria, for instance, Rue becomes addicted to opioids following the death of her father; and in Breaking Bad, Jesse relies on meth to deal with his difficult home life in New Mexico. For television and movie characters, drugs are often a means to an end, an escape from reality.
But what function do drugs serve on a college campus? In real life, we can’t treat drugs the way that Rue and Jesse do. There is a delicate balance that a college student must maintain when partaking in drugs. An unspoken moral code governs even the ‘immoral’ act of recreational drug use: you can get fucked up, but not too fucked up, or else it’s embarrassing and you ruin everyone else’s night. You can do enough drugs to be cool, but not so much that you become an addict.
Moreover, there seems to be a separate aim in doing drugs at college that is not always present on the big screen—the illegality. Breaking the rules is what makes drug use so alluring. When you’re doing drugs, you are implicitly rejecting other people’s rules in favor of your own. And you’re signaling your wealth and social clout while you’re at it. The rumors that they do ketamine here, coke there, are what make up the social underbelly of our school. It’s not about doing the drugs—it’s about letting people know that you do them.
Given all of this, should college students experiment with drugs? Tentatively, I will say yes, because I don’t want to be a narc. I really don’t. Scrape off the mysticism, grit, and allure of drugs, and you’ll realize they’re just things—life is no greater with, and no less without them.