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Argentina Has A Drug Problem, And Many Blame Musician El Pity

Cristian "el Pity" lvarez is the leader of the Argentine rock band Intoxicados, and he has been the focus of controversy surrounding Argentina's rising drug problem. El Pity's lifestyle, his music, his addiction, and the powerful influence he has on the lives of the young people that follow him have made him an icon for drug use. El Pity, who has been personally struggling with drug abuse for a long time, always asks his audience not to follow in his footsteps, expressly saying that he does not think it is ok for anyone to do drugs. But to many, El Pity's words don't match his actions.

Over the last decade, the number of Argentines taking drugs like marijuana and "paco" (Argentine slang for freebase cocaine), have increased dramatically. Many blame this rise in drug use on popular culture -- specifically, the music of Intoxicados. They argue that the rise in drug use is partially caused by music that glorifies drugs. Musicians, like El Pity, supposedly glorify drug use with their music and behavior, and they are idolized and emulated. These critics might be right -- El Pity's band name "Intoxicados" is Argentine slang for getting high.

There is no doubt that El Pity and his band Intoxicados are very popular in Argentina. Anywhere you go in Argentina, you're sure to hear one of his songs playing as someone's ringtone. El Pity's notoriety has been growing for a long time -- you'll find the logo for El Pity's previous band, Viejas Locas, spray painted onto nearly all the walls in Argentina. In bars and nightclubs, you'll hear his songs. When you're out in public, you'll see several people wearing Intoxicados or Viejas Locas shirts. Popular media features El Pity a lot too -- newspapers always have some sort of article about him, and segments about him in the news and talk shows plague the television. El Pity's popularity is so rampant that it's hard to imagine he's not a major influence on young people.

Unfortunately, drug abuse is a part El Pity's life and image. El Pity had a well-publicized arrest for possession of marijuana recently. The television coverage of the arrest featured footage of a obviously high El Pity. He was shown bragging about the amount of drugs in his pocket at that time. This was in contrast to footage of El Pity quoted at a concert as saying "lets hope none of you will ever be addicted to something." El Pity works to speak out against drugs, recording anti-drug messages and public health announcements. El Pity has a drug problem, but his body of work seems to be conflicted. Does he glorify drug use, or does he serve as a role model against it?

In an internet interview, Pity said he did not encourage, and that he did not want, young people to emulate him. But can his message really be that clear? Teens seem to ignore his messages discouraging drug use -- they consume more and more drugs every year. Unfortunately, it seems that many young people don't understand the seriousness of drug addiction. While El Pity achieves international fame and success as a drug abusing music star, teens all over Argentina become addicted to all manner of drugs. Schools don't teach about drugs and drug addiction, and it seems that parents and other family members are ignorant of the drug problem, or they tend to avoid the topic. When teens do find out about drug addiction, it is usually too late.

Drugs are not a joke, but it seems that most teens treat it as such. Many young people have songs about legalizing drugs, drug use anthems, and songs glorifying drug use -- and most of these songs are by El Pity and Intoxicados. Regardless of El Pity's personal feelings about encouraging drug abuse, his songs are definitely pro-drug use. While it's not clear that El Pity's music is the cause of Argentina's rising drug problem, it is evident that the influence of his music, combined with the lack of awareness of many parents and the poor efforts of the Argentine education system allow so many teens to turn to drugs.

El Pity once said that he wished to be the last person ever to be high on drugs -- the "last intoxicado" -- a title to one of his songs. But with El Pity's glorified drug abuse and his popular music seen as drug use anthems, he may have caused an entire generation becoming "intoxicado".

Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles

Author: Jason Lancaster is a student of Argentine affairs and has a tonos site featuring tonos para movil. You can learn more about Argentina on Wikipedia. You can get a unique content version of this article.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, which means you may freely reprint it, in its entiretly, provided you include the author's resource box along with LIVE links (without "nofollow" tags).

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