CULTURE-USA: Heroin Chic Comes Back

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Aug 6 1996 (IPS) - It’s stylish, it’s current, it’s the focus of immense media coverage and political debate, and it can kill you if you try it.

Welcome to the return of heroin as the chic drug of choice.

After years in which heroin was dismissed as deadly, or even uncool, the opium derivative can now be seen everywhere: in the British film ‘Trainspotting’ (which is distributed in the United States by Miramax), in rock music, and in the arrest records and obituaries of celebrities.

Predictably, the topic has even weaved its way into the current presidential campaign, with former Republican senator Robert Dole decrying a popular culture in which heroin could be regarded as glamourous.

In just his latest speech blasting the culture industry, Dole claimed that heroin was behind the recent deaths of young actor River Phoenix and rock musicians Kurt Cobain of the group Nirvana and, most recently, Jonathan Melvoin, keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins.

Some of Dole’s attack was simply an attempt to stay abreast of the times: as one Dole aide admitted afterward, the candidate’s staff was simply excited that he had said the phrase “Smashing Pumpkins” in a speech.

Yet there is no doubt that the glamour, and controversy, surrounding heroin have increased in recent years.

The feisty “grunge rock” movement that arose in Seattle several years ago included several musicians, including Cobain and Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots, who have been treated for alleged heroin use. Cobain committed suicide in 1994.

Many of the most popular new groups have been hurt by heroin- related scandals this summer. Weiland’s need for treatment derailed a planned Stone Temple Pilots concert, while Melvoin’s death last month from a heroin overdose prompted the Smashing Pumpkins to fire drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who also allegedly uses heroin.

Nor have heroin controversies been isolated to rock stars. Actor Robert Downey was arrested last month on charges of cocaine and heroin use, in just one of several recent arrests for the Academy Award nominee.

‘Trainspotting’, director Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s best-selling novel, has landed in the middle of the heroin debate, with critics arguing over whether the film glamourises or criticises the use of the drug.

Certainly the film presents a mixed message on the junkies who are the film’s central characters. The protagonist Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) spends much of the film trying to break his heroin habit, and goes through some harrowing withdrawal experiences. In one particularly nightmarish vision, he sees the dead baby of his neighbour crawling on his ceiling.

Yet, while all the junkies in ‘Trainspotting’ are clearly down and out, the film also vividly displays the pleasures of a heroin rush. When Renton is hospitalised after taking heroin, the film captures his dreamy, pleasant glide through life, while famed former junkie Lou Reed sings the chipper song ‘Perfect Day’ in the background.

Indeed, the mixed message from ‘Trainspotting’ comes from the author himself. Irvine Welsh, now a literary sensation in Britain, has warned of the evils of heroin in much of his oeuvre; yet at the same time, the novelist is now defending himself from charges by fellow author Will Self that Welsh was never a heroin user.

Welsh’s bid to bolster his heroin credentials is a testament to the cachet that the drug, long associated with self- destructiveness and risk-taking, possesses. From pallid, dazed- looking supermodels to the skinny, paranoid grunge stars, heroin chic has managed to make even the deterioration of junkies seem hip.

That’s nothing new. From the woes of such jazz legends as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker to the recent media flurry over Cobain’s widow, singer Courtney Love of the group Hole, accusations of heroin use have sometimes helped to enhance celebrity.

Aware of the dangers of making heroin symptoms — the wasting away, withdrawals, cravings and paranoia — glamourous, a new series of public-service announcements on MTV challenges heroin chic head-on with unusually brutal images.

In one recent advert, a junkie writhes around his bathroom floor in grotesquely-rendered pain, while a jaunty chorus sings cheerfully about how the drug is the latest rage. As the hapless user begins to pass out, the slogan of the campaign appears in bright letters: “Heroin … Looking Good.”