A Beautiful Life – Word by Jabari
In the News again today, “Another Professional Athlete Busted for Cocaine!” No need to say a name, it doesn’t matter.
It’s not an epidemic. It’s a deception. Drug dealer’s target athletes for three reasons:
1) Money
Athletes are targeted early…in college…in high school. The more potential a player shows in those formative years, increases the money opportunities in the pros. Hence, if you can get them hooked before the money comes, you’ve got a “wealthy client” for the long term.
2) Exposure
High profile clients, candidates for idol worship, will improve the odds to lure in impressionable fans. Everytime a well-known athlete is exposed for drug possession, it glamorizes a way of life. It’s free advertisement.
3) Vulnerability
Most of these athletes are young men who have not come into their own. They do not have a sense of self-awareness and, like everyone else, have a need to belong, to be cool. They are told, “to be a man, you need to do this and handle that.”
So who gets targeted most and why?
First, compare African American Athletes to your White Athletes. How often do you hear of a Larry Byrd, or a Wayne Gretzsky, or a Dan Marino getting busted on crack? Now, let’s consider Strawberry, or any number of great Black ballplayers who have gone down that dark road.
Most of these young men did not have strong male role models in their life and it’s easy to fall for this deception. Most of these young men come from single parent, mostly mothers, households. It’s easy to listen to the older guys who approach them. They are vulnerable targets.
Certainly, there are many exceptions, Kareem, Magic, Dr. J, Mike, Jason Kidd, Kobe, Barkley, Bonds, and on and on. And consider that most of these names came from two parent families. They had involved father figures.
Nevertheless, somehow, the poor choices by the ‘other guys’ get the most exploitation and make it seem rampant among Black atheletes. And it is. Because they are the most vulnerable.
Illegal drug use and abuse by any athlete, including sterioids is idiotic. Common sense should win over. Your body is your key to success. You need your body in tip top shape to perform at your best. To perform at your best, you need your mind sharp. Drugs counter all of that.
It wears your organs down, it diminishes your aptitude, your quickness and speed, and distorts your judgment. And if you need sterioids to compete, maybe you’re in the wrong business. Specifically, African American athletes should realize they don’t need the added boost. They are just told they need them. Like race horses.
Critically, drug abuse increases your chances to lose not only your reputation and standing — your potential — but, if caught, no…when caught, you lose your freedom. A loss of freedom is equivalent to slavery. Didn’t we overcome that?
So, essentially, you become a slave to an intangible object, some inanimate thing that has no power to make you do anything, because drugs can’t speak, they can’t demand that you take them, they are not holding a gun to your head. It’s a pebble…a stone…a pet Rock that becomes a boulder, then a mountain that you are chained to.
Addiction is real, physically, but it’s also mental. An addict is married to his or her drug. The drug becomes your employer, your best friend, your child, your God.
There is not a little boy in the world who dreams about growing up and becoming a pro ball player, ever imagines they will become addicted to crack or meth and destroy that career. It’s not in their plans.
It’s a deception that found them before they saw it coming. And then it becomes a trap, sometimes a life long trap.
With all the speeches and anti-drug campaigns, nothing has penetrated the psyche of pop culture more than the glamorizing of drugs using icons. It was a bold move by the powers that be. It started with the tobacco industry.
Illegal drugs are a multi-trillion dollar tax-free business. It is the most profoundly enterprising pyramid network in the world. Nothing and NO ONE will ever be able to burst that bubble. It affords only the people at the very top of the pyramid to live a vast and luxurious lifestyle. And the “middle-men” get to live large for a very short amount of time and then the ride is over. They are expendable because most of them become their own clients.
Impressionable young minds will hear the lectures, and soak in the anti-drug ads, but most will follow the “trendy” thing to do. And talk is cheap.
The only way to reach future generations and to try and save the ones already affected, is for the successful men and women icons to launch major, major anti-drug campaigns…actually going into the schools and the communities and making more and more commercials and print ads. Market it like it’s hot to not do drugs.
Another antidote would be to find a way to persuade the media to stop covering celebrity mishaps when they involve drugs. If those incidents fail to receive exposure, eventually, young people will stop associating drugs with success. That doesn’t mean covering it up or hiding it.
It means acknowledging how detrimental those actions are and the cost. It could start with celebrities making statements about how much it costs to get out of those situations, and how difficult it would be for the average person to get back on their feet from the consequences of the legal ramifications.
Crime doesn’t pay, but you will. Using drugs is criminal behavior. The penalty is prison, a lost future, or a vicious cycle of a seamy, scary, and shameful lifestyle. Ain’t nothing glamorous about it. Drugs take the edge off only once, the first time. After that, it’s a trap. Drugs cannot make you escape your daily grind, they only create another cross to bear.
Abusing drugs can and will kill you eventually. Another penalty is poor health if you manage to survive. But the ultimate penalty is an early grave. And let’s face it, a grave at anytime is too early. Especially, if it could have been avoided.
Avoid the deception. Tell your “friends” to take it on down the road and sell it, cause you’re not buying. And feel good about that. If you’re already involved, be brave, get help, get clean, get free. Don’t be afraid to start over. Many, many people have done it.
Now that’s being cool. You’ve got four minutes to save the world.