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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to feel pissed off with Lady Gaga?

147 replies

Ladyanonymous · 03/08/2010 12:32

AIBU to feel really quite pissed off that Lady Gaga has done this interview where she admits that she uses Cocaine "occasionally" (a few times a year).

Cocaine is illegal both here and in the states and is a Class A drug, and is not what I would consider one of the "safer" illegal substances (for those of you who are not familiar with my posts I am quite knowledgeable about drugs as I am a schools drugs adviser/counsellor).

It wouldn't bother me so much if it was an artist who didn't have a lot of younger fans (ie - my 11 yr old daughter! ) - but she does.

AIBU to feel that she can do what the hell she wants in the privacy of her own home but she has a responsibility as a public figure not to broadcast this to a lot of young impressionable people therefore normalising it and making it seem an ok thing to do?

I am in two minds - what do you lot think?

OP posts:

SkiHorseWonAWean · 03/08/2010 13:28

lol @ "I'm a school's drug advisor so know everyfink about marijuana tablets" - always draws parallels with a catholic priest giving marital guidance.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 13:30

The Afghan man's solution has nothing to do with cocaine, and is a very simplistic approach to a much bigger problem. Clearly.

PosieParker · 03/08/2010 13:31

UD, I always think some people go OTT about drug taking parents, ie DH smoked one puff of weed and now I want a divorce which gets lots of 'if he can't give up he shouldn't have kids' and then some people with a sense of perspective.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 13:33

Where did the parent buy the drugs from? If he/she grew it themselves, then I can't say I'm bothered. Otherwise, I hope they made really sure that they bought it from an ethical source which didn't support any type of crime.

lenak · 03/08/2010 13:34

Erm - has anyone actually read the interview?

She talks about her now occassional drug use (taking cocaine a couple of times a year) in the wider context of her previous drug use and how it screwed her up:

Gaga talks candidly about her drug use and recalls her ultimate low point: ?I was completely mental and had just been through so much.? She had been using drugs, and is quick to tell Robinson that, if she writes about that incident, ?I do not want my fans to ever emulate that or be that way. I don?t want my fans to think they have to be that way to be great. It?s in the past. It was a low point, and it led to disaster.

She goes on to say how her parents and grandmother pulled her together and that she wouldn't be where she is now if she was still using regularly.

Yes, she admits she still occassionally takes drugs, but she also details how they nearly destroyed her life and that she doesn't want her fans to do the same thing.

That seems to me to be a powerful and realistic message, and one that her fans are much more likely to listen to because she has been there. Good on her for being honest.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 13:37

Good for her - she obviously had the support network (and finances, I imagine) to get herself back on track. Unfortunately that's not an option for so many drug addicts or takers . I do wonder, when she knows the misery it causes, why she feels she needs to take it at all.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 13:37

Good for her as in well done, not bully for her, iykwim!

PosieParker · 03/08/2010 13:38

I would imagine that low point was prior to being famous.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 13:40

Who knows - the fact is, she still had the resources available to overcome the addiction. She's one of the lucky ones.

Aitch · 03/08/2010 13:45

what are you talking about, maisie? you see, surely to god, that what the man refers to is the fact that there is something in it for the western world to keep the drugs trade going. it's existence means that a lot of school drugs counsellors get paid, a lot of police, social workers etc have jobs to go to, that there is some benefit in retaining a sedated underclass. tough shit on the middle class casualties, i say, they should know better. a lot of money is moved around, which as the recent financial collapse must have taught you, is the name of the game. very interesting doc on this week on c4, think it's called 'our drugs war'. i suggest you watch it.

tokyonambu · 03/08/2010 13:58

"I do wonder, when she knows the misery it causes, why she feels she needs to take it at all."

Many people have their lives ruined by alcoholism. Should everyone else stop drinking an occasional glass of wine, now they know the misery it causes to other people?

Given both alcohol and nicotine are nasty, addictive drugs which cause major social and medical effects, can you remind me why cocaine is illegal and they aren't? Were cocaine available on the same financial basis as alcohol, would it cause any more harm?

southeastastra · 03/08/2010 13:59

i think she should shut up about it too. he cocaine past really shows up in her crap persona imo.

mayorquimby · 03/08/2010 14:51

YABU I can see no reason why she wouldn't talk about it.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 15:15

Aitch, if you're not able to understand my posts then I really can't be bothered explaining anymore. We're obviously wasting each others time.

Toky - no, I wouldn't suggest that everyone gives up alcohol, but given that she had her life ruined by drugs by her own admission, I can't understand why she feels the need to take it at all. I'm not sure that making cocaine as available as alcohol would be a step forward - do you think it should be legalised?

tokyonambu · 03/08/2010 15:23

"but given that she had her life ruined by drugs by her own admission"

Last I checked, she was a zillion-selling international star making vast amounts of money. It must be a definition of "ruined" I wasn't previously aware of. As Chrissie Hynde pointed out after Radio 1 ran a spectacularly ill-advised "just say no" programme involving playing stunning records by people who had also been heroin addicts, the main lesson you'd take away from it is that far from screwing you up, you can make really good albums. And given how Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott died, it's not as though Hynde is ignorant of the problem.

"do you think it should be legalised"

You mean, do I think that it would be better for a dangerous drug to be available legally under control, rather than illegally under no control? Yes. Because given we're spending vast amounts of money on the "war" on drugs while the street price of Class A drugs is dropping, the "war" isn't doing a lot of good. Legalisation would mean that more people would take it, come to less harm, and the rest of us wouldn't get our cars broken into. We've spent fifty years trying to stop people being idiots with drugs via the law, and it's not working, is it? A definition of insanity is continuing to do the same things hoping the outcome will be different.

Aitch · 03/08/2010 15:24

what's your angle on this, maisie? seeing as you know so much about it (that you can't be bothered explaining). why so snarky?

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 15:37

Toky - I'm quoting from Lenak's earlier post
Erm - has anyone actually read the interview?

She talks about her now occassional drug use (taking cocaine a couple of times a year) in the wider context of her previous drug use and how it screwed her up:

She goes on to say how her parents and grandmother pulled her together and that she wouldn't be where she is now if she was still using regularly.

Yes, she admits she still occassionally takes drugs, but she also details how they nearly destroyed her life and that she doesn't want her fans to do the same thing.

That, to me, says that her life was ruined at that time. Fortunately for her she was able to recover - as I said earlier, not everyone is so lucky.

I agree with you, the 'war' on drugs isn't being won - IMO it's a fire-fighting exercise. Do you think that legalising it would stop people taking it?

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 15:38

Sorry, should have put "Erm" down to "do the same thing" in quotation marks.

tokyonambu · 03/08/2010 15:45

"Do you think that legalising it would stop people taking it?"

No. Do you think that making it illegal is stopping people taking it?

I think that clean, cheap cocaine, heroin and the rest, available at reasonable prices in high-street shops, would mean that users would do themselves less harm (as the harm often comes from the contamination) and would do us less harm (as if it cost a quid, they wouldn't need to mug people in the street).

Moreover, it would put the entire drugs industry out of business, so children would no longer be encouraged to take drugs by shady characters, drug dealers would no longer recruit children to run guns and drugs, drugs gangs would no longer fight battles in which children got caught in the cross-fire, etc, etc. Drug dealing would no longer look like a viable career opportunity for people failing in education, which would be a big result. The most the illegal drug industry could do is attempt to undercut the legal, in the way that smuggled alcohol and cigarettes are a business; that's much easier to control, and because there is immense margin in the product, the legal industry can set the price low enough to discourage it.

There would be unintended consequences, for sure: men in Range Rovers making their money out of illegal drugs would be unlikely to take up bricklaying. But at the moment, the illegal drug industry is kept in business by the very fact that it's illegal - you're hardly going to complain to trading standards that you got short measure and your dealer didn't wash his hands, are you?

expatinscotland · 03/08/2010 15:47

I think 'drugs' should be legalised and regulated the way tobacco and alcohol are, and taxed the same way, too.

Aitch · 03/08/2010 15:51

thing is, though, the war keeps a lot of public servants busy... although getting real about it would let the cleggeron make a lot of cuts.

tethersend · 03/08/2010 15:55

I for one am shocked and saddened.

I think we should go back to the Good Old Days with The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.

Bet you'd never catch them gyrating around in a bikini on MTV either.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 03/08/2010 15:58

Ah, but at least their music wasn't/isn't shite! DS trying to make a cake (no, not that kind ) - am getting no peace to post here

mummysgoingmad · 03/08/2010 16:06

oh fgs i worked with people who have addiction issues (until ds came along) but this does not surprise me! Unless you only listen to cliff richard then my bet is most of your idols when you were younger were on enough illegal substances to knock out a small horse!

NEWS FLASH!
Children and young people do not think oh lady gaga does drugs therefore i must!

Original poster

Ladyanonymous · 03/08/2010 20:38

"lol @ "I'm a school's drug advisor so know everyfink about marijuana tablets"

Really? You can get it illegally in tablets form?

I never said that anyway I was just trying to explain that in my OP so no one felt the need to give me a drugs lecture and to explain I am familiar with the issue and the subject.

I just wondered what other people thought - its only normal because it has been normalised and because of this I now see clients as young as 13 who are using coke and I don't work in a big city.

I don't know how I feel about her comments. She is saying its okay to have an addiction get really fucked up and then still use that substance occasionally.

I do know that the drugs law in this country are a joke - and don't work - and are pertaining to the government agenda - not scientific evidence.

Newspapers run the country anyway - not the government.

OP posts:

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