POP CULTURE

Hollywood is slow to herald horror of meth

Mainstream TV, movies missing chance to educate us about drug

By Tonya Jameson
Posted on Sun, Oct. 09, 2005

Crystal. Tina. Crank. Ice. Glass. Speed.

Call it what you want but learn the nicknames, because in the last few years methamphetamine has escaped its trailer park roots and crept into mainstream America.

In August, a Newsweek magazine cover story proclaimed meth “America’s Most Dangerous Drug,” and some law enforcement officials throughout the country say it’s their No. 1 drug problem. You wouldn’t know it though, judging from our usual barometer of what’s “in” -- Hollywood.

The same industry that put a face on the term “crackhead” has been unable to slam “meth mom” into our consciousness. A couple of movies and television programs have dealt with meth, but there haven’t been any groundbreaking works to really get people talking.

That’s unfortunate, because entertainers can make people pay attention to topics they wouldn’t normally care about. Take the rap group N.W.A., for example. Its music sparked criticism because it glorified violence and misogyny. But the group’s music also exposed middle- and upper–class Americans to how crack was ravaging poor black neighborhoods during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Movies can also have a strong impact. After seeing Chris Rock play “Pookie” in the movie “New Jack City,” I knew what a crackhead looked like. It wasn’t pretty.

The movie “Scarface” showed how cocaine destroyed an empire and lives, and “Drugstore Cowboy” and “Requiem for a Dream” illustrated how desperate heroin can make you.

Those movies appealed to users and nonusers, but movies and television shows about meth rarely attract a broad audience. Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” followed along as a meth addiction destroyed Ted, a main character, but a TV series about a hardcore gay culture has a limited audience.

The 2002 movie “Spun,” about a meth addict, his supplier and his supplier’s girlfriend, is too weird to appeal to a wide audience. The editing and freaky animation might make you feel as high as the characters in the movie. And people I know who have either used meth or other drugs say “Spun” is an accurate portrayal of the drug’s effects.

Accuracy is important, but so is accessibility. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t do drugs who’s seen that movie, which means “Spun” is preaching to the choir.

And the choir isn’t singing loud enough.

Big problem

Meth, which makes you hyper and sexually aggressive, doesn’t get the kind of exposure that marijuana, alcohol, crack, cocaine and heroin get. Yet all types of folks use it -- construction workers, college students, soccer moms.In a National Association of Counties survey of 500 counties, 58 percent of law enforcement officials said meth was their biggest drug problem, followed by cocaine, marijuana and heroin. According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 12 million Americans ages 12 and older had tried methamphetamine at least once in their lifetimes, which was about four times the number who had tried it in 1994.

“It’s a bigger problem than people realize,” said Ricardo Torres, of the Chemical Dependency Center in Charlotte.

While Hollywood has all but ignored the issue, the news media has caught on to the changing face of meth. For example, the recent Newsweek story featured a college–educated woman who earned six figures and lived the American dream. The mother and sales rep got hooked on meth, was caught shoplifting several times, and eventually was nabbed for turning her home near Chicago into a meth lab.

A suburban surprise closer to home: A federal grand jury recently indicted Eva Piatt on charges of running a meth lab in her south Charlotte townhome.

Art imitating life

Concord native Tommy Foster isn’t waiting for Hollywood to catch up to reality. He created a one–man play, “The METHod to My Madness” to chronicle his addiction to meth, which he discovered while partying in gay clubs in New York. During one of Foster’s sex and drug binges, he had unprotected sex and contracted HIV.

In July, Foster performed the play at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte to raise awareness about meth, which can be snorted, smoked, injected or taken as a pill.

Foster, who briefly moved back to Concord earlier this year, and several Charlotteans say meth has become more accessible in clubs here in the last few years. They’ve seen it used among bankers, real estate sellers and other professionals.

“Here, it’s a sex drug,” said John Glorioso, program coordinator with Metrolina AIDS Project. “It’s not isolated in regards to who’s doing it, who’s not.”

Added Foster, “A lot of people around here, the guys who are using don’t realize they have a problem. I want people to start talking about it before it starts exploding.”