In 2018, a lot of famous people have died or almost died due to drug related causes. Mac Miller, an american hip-hop artist, is one of them. He was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on January 19, 1992. He had a mom, Karen Myers, and a dad, Mark McCormick, that was heavily involved in his life, and loved him dearly. Mac taught himself how to play bass, guitar, drums, and piano by his early teen years, and thought of himself as a professional musician by the age of 15.

I decided to consult Richard Wolcott, a counselor here at Leonardtown High School, just for some professional input on drug abuse. Not only did he cast factual information in response to my questions, he casted empathy towards addiction in general! “We always want students to know we help with struggling and have resources here at LHS” Wolcott said.  

According to drugabuse.gov, 72,000 people overdosed on drugs in 2017. The drug-to-death ratio is 1-4, meaning every four people to die, one of those persons die from a drug overdose. Marijuana, being the most commonly-used drug, does not cause a possible overdose, or isn’t providing the high of a more intense drug, so then people look for a more harder drug. Cocaine is the second most used drug, and causes seizures, anxiety, anger, and of course, a large possibility of an overdose. .  

Billboard hosted an interview with Mac Miller in 2013, in which he told a lot about himself and his drug addiction. “I’ve been doing drugs since I was ten, I just hid it from everybody…I will try any drug offered to me, being sober sucks.” Miller also admitted to first starting off with smoking marijuana in his childhood/teen years, but it started giving him anxiety, so he started looking for more numbing and relaxing drugs, so he moved onto cocaine, and then later, obviously, fiercer drugs. “I’ve definitely seen freshman struggle with drug problems,” Wolcott noted.  

Miller’s music performs a perfect job of reflecting off his feelings and his daily/lifelong use of narcotics. The genre of music that is labeled on his albums is “hip/hop”, but the sound of his music is so unique almost to the point where just his music could create a total different category of music. It’s unfortunate that I started listening to him after his passing, but I absolutely love his music. He talks a lot in his songs about how drugs, love, and alcohol has affected his life, long and short term. It was never a secret that Mac narcotized himself, just no one had ever expected him to pass from drug-related reasons, not even Mac himself. “Overdosing is just not cool” Miller told Billboard.

In the present American Society, music impacts a lot of people’s life, and could possibly be indirect peer pressure”, leading to drug abuse/alcohol abuse, overdosing, violence, etc. “A lot of what is portrayed in popular culture is what tennagers see as popular and normal,” Wolcott stated. Music is a colossal fragment of my life, I listen to it everyday. Today’s music is so diverse. It could possibly tell a person he/she has to act in this manner to be “cool”, or accepted amongst his peers as a whole, if that one person[s] happened to take it that way. Music is vital. It provides sound to a silent world, and perhaps feelings, it just depends on the way you consider the purpose of music.  

Most people use drugs as a medicine, to cope with their problems. “Large reason teenagers experiment with drugs is to cope with their problems they face on a daily basis…” Wolcott explained. Mac Miller had many diagnoses, one is severe depression, and that’s the reason he moved into harder narcotics. He gave the more intense drugs not very much thought, and was very careless with them. “Very easy to give second thought to serious drugs,” Wolcott stated.

Miller was a very skillful person and artist. His music was extraordinary, and spoke to many. He had a loving family, had plenty of money, and a well-planned out career… he just got himself hooked, which was extremely unfortunate! Mac just didn’t know how to deal with his problems, and it caught up with him. Mac Miller will always be a top musician. His music will always be cherished by everyone. Rest in Peace Mac Miller, you’ve sincerely gone down in history.