Foreign Rehab

The abbreviation of Amy Winehouse's life enticed my usually dormant feelings to snake their way out of the basket. I'm hesitant to say, initially the news made "sense", but after fixing my ill-informed and conditioned reflexes it didn't make any sense at all. Amy's troubles took place in the tabloids as well as television, that's no secret. It however makes me wonder about the environment that some stars with opportunistic lives operate in. Now before i swan-dive into the Grand Canyon with this beautiful mind that i have, i would be remiss if i didn't mention that at this minute the cause of her death is unknown. This is going to be a twisting and winding piece so tarry with me as i am returning from an unintentional sabbatical.

Logic tells me that it should be reasonably difficult for a grammy winning songstress to commit destructive behavior on a consistent basis. For anyone unfamiliar with Amy Winehouse, she had a hard time overcoming some drug abuse issues that became known just as quickly as she did, around 2006 for many of us. To make this point simple [This alone may be my platform's undoing] I will say that humans generally consider drug abuse bad, generally care about each other, and particularly care about people that can make money. Winehouse had a camp -- any Grammy winning artist has a "camp" -- how was this group unable to keep her from a revolving door of rehab visits? We all understand that adults make their own decisions but stars tend to have less freedom and tend to have their lives more controlled than the rest of us. Now factor in family members who more than likely realized she was the cash cow of the family, how do you let that self-implode? I do not underestimate the power of addiction but her legacy wreaks of enablers.

I've read a little bit about the struggle of addiction with cigarette smokers, and it is well-understood that smokers tend to either have or have signs of depression, so often times it's equally as important to deal with the mental state of the person as it is to deal with the nicotine addiction. Here i'll put a little excerpt from the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1990, "In a study of 3,200 randomly selected adults, of those who had at some time in their lives been diagnosed with a major psychiatric disorder, 74% had smoked at some point, 14% had quit. Of those who had never been diagnosed with a psychiatric problem, 53% had smoked at some point in their life and 31% managed to quit... about 80% of alcoholics smoke... about 90% of schizophrenics smoke." With that information i extrapolated it to drug use [I could be wrong] and it leads me to the conclusion that Winehouse was troubled further than what we may know. However, with many resources it seems she would be able to get exceptional help, and that help would get to the root instead of continuing to trim the limbs. Again I am mystified.

Lastly I will say, is there anything that we can do as bystanders or fans? We know that celebrities have an effect on us but is there any way we can affect them? Maybe there isn't, but I think we all play a part. Do we make it comfortable for the drug culture to exist, or do we realistically help prevent what we can? Those are just questions to think about in case there is a way we can help.

The only thing left at this point is the epilogue. Amy Winehouse - loved to sing, but was sent to the wrong rehab.

Its all mental: Instru, Funda, Detri

Once upon a time there was a guy, a guy that worked for Southwest Airlines, a guy that worked for Southwest Airlines and smuggled cocaine aboard 388 flights. The man was a baggage handler down in Houston, and he moved the "work" routinely from Houston to Baltimore. Much to the authorities chagrin, he has been doing this since 2001, *for the record this is 2008. He has recently been caught and detained and is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, however he could succumb to a life sentence. The story alluded to the idea that he was not caught with cocaine on him, however he was discovered coming off of a flight with $79,122 on his person.

A couple of bullet points here: How bad does this look for Southwest/Airport security? In fairness I read that a lot of employees don't go through the same rigors that mundane traveling patrons undergo. The ensuing point is, why didn't he stop in 2004, 2005, or 2006? If he has enough gwap (money) to walk around with eighty G's then he is clearly doing it for the thrill of the chase. But some would simply call him greedy. Getting caught is an issue, but the larger issue is the mentality that many people possess. Let's talk strategy for a moment. Follow this example: you have an individual from an impoverished background with little options and they decide to traffic illegal substances and in the course of a year they progress from O's to Keys (ounce to a Kilo, don't ask what you are thinking) and now they are playing with heavy paper or multiple G's like this man was. Usually the authorities don't care to catch nor do they look for the small time guys. So why wouldn't this person get out the (drug) game once they get their finances together, since they were fortunate enough to make it this far and cover that money in legal money i.e. a business or something. Good question right? Like Jay-z said "said that i would stop before i even started, when i got to one brick then the game i will depart with, got to one brick then i looked to the sky like, sorry God i lied but give me one more try". The irony of selling drugs is that it's sort of like using them, its an addiction.

So I shake my head at this whole story but in large part due to the mentality. I think the quality of one's life depends on their mentality, you can be the pioneer of a fortune 500 company, lose it, and have your world crumble. Or you can build it, lose it, and say "its nothing" I'll do it again because I built it and i can build it again. Just a difference of mentality. However back to the morals, do the right thing like Spike Lee said.