Most of us have seen the commercial. The girl who barely looks a day over 12, chatting on her cell phone when the person on the other line tells her there's a scandalous picture of her circulating the school.
The girl gives a fake shocked look, then responds with "I was so high…" before looking over her shoulder to see another 12-year-old giggling and looking in her direction. It's probably the worst anti-drug commercial of all time.
My advice to the anti-drug educators isn't to hire tweens to tell people not to get "so high." Instead, I suggest a more intense method.
Showing the 2000 film "Requiem for a Dream."
Those of you who have seen the film are probably nodding your heads in agreement right now. Whether you most remember the scene of a refrigerator turned monster, the arm amputation or the graphic sex scene for cocaine money, you remember the film. But for those of you who haven't delved into director and writer Darren Aronofsky's twisted drug tale, it will teach you one thing: Don't do drugs.
The film weaves the tales of four drug lovin' people. Harry Goldfarb, played by Jared Leto, and his girlfriend Marion Silver, played by Jennifer Connelly, share a passion for illegal substances, with Harry's love being heroin and Marion's being cocaine. With the hope of making more cash to fuel his addiction, Harry decides to get into the drug dealing business with his druggie pal Tyrone C. Love, played by Marlon Wayans (if you lost all faith in Wayans after "White Chicks," this film will restore it).
However, the film isn't about a bunch of young junkies wasting away getting blazed. Harry's mom Sara, played by Ellen Burstyn, even gets the drug bug when she hears she might get a chance to be on a TV show, causing her to binge on diet pills (speed) to get her waist to size. And although she loses weight, she loses her sanity as well. She goes so crazy in fact that she ends up receiving electroshock therapy in hopes to keep her head from falling completely off her shoulders (figuratively, not literally).
In a semi-predictable fashion, all four of the characters spiral down into a hole of destruction, which ends in prostitution, jail, murders and just plain psychotics. Even if you already know that drugs are wack, you can appreciate the film's unique camera angles and creative effects. You don't feel like you're just watching a drug film, but rather that you're living the consequences yourself.
Clearly, drug abuse results in a lot more than just a few scandalous cell phone pictures.