This year's American Film Market Festival will feature not just one, but three films about the life of famed Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, The New York Times reported this week. (Who could have guessed that last season of Entourage, of all things, would prove prophetic?!).
True, three movies about one narcotics enigma is overload, but Escobar does have all the makings of a sexy movie protagonist: He's powerful, dangerous and staggeringly wealthy. But what Mr. Escobar is lacking is the make of today's drug lords. At least for the moment, real-life kingpins are built from a different stock.
For example, the man behind today's drug trafficking may be an Afghani farmer who took to smuggling opium in order to make a living.
When combined with the innumerable other small-time movers that make up the Afghani opium mafia, his drug business constitutes an estimated one third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.
Another major contender for narcotic bigwig of 2007 is a little more familiar: a pudgy, dapper, middle-aged CEO of one of the 50-some companies that constitute PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
PhRMA lobbies for and represents what has become a colossal, $55.2 billion industry and reaps enormous profits and revenues each year.
Needless to say, the intentions of PhRMA are not to invest $55.2 in illicit drug use. Alarm bells, however, have been sounding around the country as people begin to recognize the pharmaceutical industry as a major source of illicit, recreational drugs.
The misuse and abuse of prescription drugs is fast becoming young America's biggest drug habit. In fact, the Partnership for a Drug Free America announced in 2005 that teens and young adults in America are more likely to have abused prescription painkillers than any illegal drug, excluding marijuana.
"In other words," announced Partnership Chairman Roy Bostock, "Generation Rx has arrived."
"Generation Rx," Mr. Bostock? Isn't that a bit tacky? I might be a bit "So Dartmouth" at times, but that sense of wordplay still seems a bit garish. The phrase is not without utility, however: it calls to mind one facet of our youth culture today that may, 20 years from now, be seen as defining it. Generations of adolescents are frequently remembered by their respective deviance -- the baby boomers are ubiquitous with "free love," for example.
Though it's hard to guess how we will self-describe our youth when we are old and grey, I'd make a decent estimate is that hip-hop, energy drinks, and prescription drug abuse will come to mind as our trademark choices for rebellion.
Consider this: last February, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released an analysis of trends in prescription drug use amongst teens. The verdict? In 2006, there were as many first-time abusers of prescription drugs as there were of marijuana.
Young adults from ages 18 to 25 in America are currently demolishing all other age groups in terms of nonmedical use of prescription drugs, with an estimated 14.5 percent of us having abused prescription drugs in the past year.
Compare that with 9.1 percent for all teens, and 4.4 percent for those aged 26 and older, and you begin to see what all the fuss is about. Generation Rx has arrived, indeed.
Let's move on from "who" to "what": recreational use of prescriptions generally comes in three bottles: depressants (Valium, Xanax), opioids (Oxycotin, Vicodin), and stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin.)
According to ONDCP, Vicodin is most popular amongst young adults, and is often mixed with alcohol or other chemicals in social settings. Amphetamines, cough medicine and depressants, in that order, are the three next popular. To give a whole new meaning to Jefferson Airplane's "one pill makes you larger ... " idiom, recreational use of Viagra is on the rise as well.
Studies usually cite two reasons behind the boom of young America's pill-popping: widespread availability, and the myth that pharmaceuticals are safer than other illicit drugs. Social norms are also held accountable -- studies show that young adults perceive prescription drug abuse to be acceptable, and less stigmatized, "sketchy" than use of other, always-illegal drugs.
Regardless of the true rhyme and reason behind why Generation Rx is making such a splash, the splash is being called "epidemic," and that is a very large splash. A cannon ball, if you will.
So Generation Rx is here. But is it happening to us? The human Adderall who was wandering about Webster Avenue Wednesday night would likely vote, "Yes." For her Halloween costume, she had chosen to don both a schoolgirl outfit and a large blue cardboard pill, coining herself her "very own study buddy."
The costume was amusing (okay, hilarious), but the fact that most people recognized Adderall is very telling. Think about the implications -- students recognize an Adderall costume almost as readily as they would recognize a walking blont or bottle of Jack Daniels. If that isn't a sign of cultural embedding, I pray you tell me what is?
