Entertainers that encompass musicians, actors, songwriters, dancers overcome everything that comes their way in show business in the form of owning deluxe homes, driving flashy sports cars, having women at their beg and call - but the one thing that entertainers have not and cannot surmount is drugs.
Since the 1920’s when the likes of Bobby Briscal was killed by drug overdose till recently, when actor Heath Ledger was killed last month by dug overdose, celebrities have succumbed to this element. Many of the world’s talented entertainers have been killed by drugs and it is on record that drug –related deaths score first as the worst killer of celebrities as compared to deaths culminating from murders, automobile accident and ailments. Some used the drugs to commit suicide; others were killed by its overdose whereas the rest were annihilated due to complications from the drug use.
Ike Turner, Grammy award winner and ex-husband of soul singer Tina Turner, died last month from cocaine overdose with high blood pressure as contributing factor. Anna Nicole Smith, former Playboy magazine housemate and actress died of a lethal combination of drugs in a hotel in Barbados. Elvis Presley, affectionately called ‘The King’, who churned out many classics and starred in many hit movies died of a heart attack caused by overdose of drugs.
Jimi Hendrix, talented Black American guitarist who sold million records also died of drug overdose. Marilyn Monroe, the beautiful actress noted for her infamous romance with President John F. Kennedy died of drug overdose. Heath Ledger, the Australian Hollywood actor died last month in his home after overdosing himself with drugs.
Close to a thousand famous entertainers have been wiped out from the face of the earth through drugs and the list keeps lengthening and lengthening.
Pimp C, one half of the hip-hop duo UGK, was found dead in his hotel room after taking an overdose of mixture of drugs.
According to wikipedia and lifenlegacy.com, Ghanaian Kiki Gyan is rated as one of many talented celebrities killed by drug-related complications. Acclaimed keyboardist and a member of the Afro-rock group Osibisa Band during the 70’s, who at the time was voted the 8th best keyboardist in the world, whose career was derailed by years of prolonged drug use – was eventually found dead inside a church bathroom.
One of the many creative lads ever to grace the hiplife scene has been Okomfuo Kwadee.
I first saw Kwadee on stage during the rap competition of the Club Beer Miss Ghana pageant preliminaries – a show that was eventually won by the late Terry Bonchaka. Okumfuo Kwadee was so talented on the show; he was whisked to the studio to record his first album even before the show could wrap up. So good he was that, he came out with a unique and sublime style of rapping, a style that has been copied by copycats like Okomshefuo, Keewuo and Quata.
After four hit albums and awards under his belt, the last picture of Okomfuo on stage was disheartening. The last time he mounted the stage was at the 2006 Finale of the Nescafe African Revelation competition, he was said to be so ‘high’ he dressed tackily, forgot his lyrics and had to be forced off stage because he had no idea of where and what was going on around him. So it came as no surprise when Okomfuo disclosed that his mental instability was as a result of smoking too much of the weed – and it had to take Spiritual intervention to save him temporarily.
Like Okumfuo Kwadee, many of our entertainers are embroiled in the use of drugs even when they are privy to the perils of drug use. Almost 90% of our entertainers take drugs especially the hiplife artistes.
Drugs are chemicals that change the functioning of the body and there are legal and illegal drugs. Legal drugs are those that a person is allowed or prescribed to have by doctors or physicians and illegal drugs are chemicals, pills, liquids or parts of plants that people take to become intoxicated or ‘get high’. Examples are heroin, cocaine, cocaine freebase, crystal meth, marijuana, the leaves and flowers of cannabis plant (Most of our artists use this one as they smoke them back stage and usually before and after performances onstage), ecstasy and hashish are other illegal drugs.
Most of these drugs are addictive and once one gets stuck to it, it becomes a tedious task to stop using. People take drugs for various reasons- like when a person is sad, stressed, bored or frustrated; they take it to feel better temporarily.
Many of our artistes take it to get ‘high’ before performances to energize them to shout, and jump around. Most of them get stressed out due to performances at many shows, moving from television to radio and print interviews and they take it for relief but they get stuck to it and take it excessively and that is were the danger lies.
Many others take drugs just because they see it as fashion and makes them feel like thugs or hardcore in music. When people become addicted to it, the bodies become accustomed to having the drug that they can’t function without the drugs.
Nobody smokes better than Snoop Dogg, Raekwon, DMX or Redman but these guys take these drugs in optimum quantities that will not have inimical effects but when our hiplifers try such drugs, they take them stupidly and face the repercussions.
Even with their sophisticated Drug Rehabilitation Centers, most of them still can’t survive the virulent effects of drugs, so one can imagine a country which has no Rehab Centers but has its entertainers and youth entangled in the excessive use of drugs.
Drugs contain chemicals like depressants, hallucinogens and stimulants. Depressant slows the person down, to relax muscles and make them feel sleepy, and less stressed out. Hallucinogen changes a person’s mood and makes him or her see or think things are not really there. That explains why mentally-derailed persons can be seen laughing to themselves or dancing to no music or chatting to him or her self. Stimulants speed up a person’s body, especially the brain.
Usually, stimulants make a person feel high and energized but when it wears off, the person feels tired and sick.
Many find it difficult to stop using and those who manage to stop go back to it because of withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms associated with stopping drug use are vomiting, sweating and tremors.
If the person is not disciplined and dedicated to stopping, withdrawal symptoms compels him/ her to use drugs like in the case of Kiki. But if he/she is able to withstand these sick feelings, the body gets adjusted to being drug free again. Drug addiction has many related problems apart from damaging the brain, the heart and other important organs. People addicted to drugs get involved in robberies, fights, sexual promiscuity and addicts that do injection of heroin and crack are susceptible to infections such as AIDS and Hepatitis.
Entertainers worldwide can’t do without drugs as some take for the right reasons at the wrong times, whereas others take it excessively and it therefore behooves Artiste Managers ,Producers, relatives and friends of our entertainers to help them through but educating them on the dangers of drug abuse.
