Violent graphics and bright lights flash on a TV screen as Neal* bites into a chocolate bar while playing video games with his friend. Suddenly, his vision blurs and he feels a strange euphoria flooding his senses. He tells his friend he is going outside for a break. Soon enough, he is on the roof, calmly watching YouTube videos as he trips out from the psilocybin, commonly referred to as shrooms, in the chocolate bar. His rush of anxious thoughts stops and is replaced by an unfamiliar peace and hyper-awareness of his surroundings.
Neal, who tried shrooms for the first time last year, said his experience was different from how he had seen it portrayed in the media.
“It felt closer to a marijuana high than a completely different experience,” Neal said. “In the media, the only aspect that is represented is the visuals because the conception is that your entire reality changes and you start seeing crazy things. That’s just not how it is unless you take a huge dose, so that’s only going to be 0.1% of trips. For me, it actually makes me much more conscious of my actions and myself. Seeing a bunch of things and tripping out isn’t all that there is.”
Westflix Leader Henry Wain ’25 said shifting social norms have changed both the kind of substances that are promoted and the mediums through which they are presented.
“Cigarettes in past television and films were definitely glorified for teenagers and for everyone,” Wain said. “There was a shift in the 1990s and early 2000s after ‘Fight Club’, where cigarettes became less promoted. Even though they were still present, they weren’t necessarily amplified and it just became a part of the narrative. Another [aspect] is that movies are less important right now. In that sense, things like music and Instagram Reels are more influential and normalize [substance use] more than movies do.”
In 1998, the four largest American tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which ended tobacco-related paid product placements in movies and limited cigarette advertising to youth, according to a study conducted by the NIH.
Westflix Leader Eze Baum ‘26 said the current portrayal of drugs in television is contingent on its audience appeal and profitability , but that the legalization of drugs such as marijuana could normalize substance use.
“It always comes down to the stories that people want to tell, and what interests [studio executives] is marketability,” Baum said. “For the executives involved that are not on the creative side, the question is really as simple as, ‘Is this going to make us money?’ If the answer is yes, it’s going to get made. In terms of portraying [drugs] so casually, one thing that comes to mind is the legalization of various substances, namely weed in California.”
Upper School Counselor Tina McGraw ’01 said teenagers are particularly vulnerable to psychological influence from media because they are at a critical point of self-discovery.
“According to psychologist Erik Erikson, one of the main tasks of adolescence is identity formation,” McGraw said. “While teenagers are still experimenting with different personas, most adults have already established how they see themselves in the world. This identity instability makes teens more susceptible to outside influence, especially from their peers. When they encounter media featuring characters they admire, teens often imitate those behaviors in an effort to be more like them. If those characters are shown drinking or using drugs, teens may come to see those actions as normal and less risky than they actually are in reality.”
Caleb*, who tried edible weed gummies for the first time over the summer, said substance use tends to be over-exaggerated in the media, and that its depiction should shift to a more balanced, realistic view.
“There’s a lot of representation about how much drugs will f**k up your life and whatnot, but the reality is not that,” Caleb said. “There are so many people who take drugs casually and regularly and are perfectly normal people. They’re not zombies. They’re not victims of their own habits. They exist and operate just as any normal person would. We need to learn and educate kids about the reality that drugs play in our society, not just scare them, so they can make the right decisions when it comes to how much they’re taking or if they try them at all.”
Baum said the casual depiction of drugs on screen mirrors a societal shift towards an increasingly relaxed attitude towards substance use.
“Over the last few years, society has just drifted into a more casual use of drugs,” Baum said. “It just seems like it’s not a taboo subject anymore. It has become a mainstream interest. When people don’t feel quite as uncomfortable talking about something, they’re going to make a lot of art about it so that they can understand it.”
Caleb said movies tend to dramatize the hallucinatory effect of weed.
“The media tends to exaggerate the addictive and psychedelic effects of a drug like weed,” Caleb said. “I wasn’t expecting that the effects would be so slow and gradual because in movies, it’s depicted like, boom, you’re high and then you’re not. It cuts to the hangover, and there’s a moment of realization and guilt. However, from what I remember, I never felt the sudden drop because the come down was so gradual and unnoticeable. At the peak of it, you’re trying to wrestle for control of your own mind. Then, the downturn is when you’re slowly winning that struggle and regaining control of your own thoughts and actions.”
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) project is a substance abuse education program founded in 1983 that was widely implemented in schools to warn teenagers away from using drugs. However, its effectiveness became widely questioned after a 2003 study found that D.A.R.E. had no significant long term impact on drug use and in some instances resulted in slightly higher rates of drug use, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. Since then, the program has revised their curriculum to focus on more evidence-based strategies towards prevention. D.A.R.E. Director of Curriculum and Training Ashley Frazier said the depiction of substance use as a mechanism to meet social and physical needs normalizes the behavior for teenagers.
“[There are a lot of] imperfect strategies to meet our needs and sometimes [that] imperfect strategy is a substance.” Frazier said. “When substances are shown as a coping strategy, whether it’s friends unwinding with drinks or the guys bonding with a smoke on the beach, it can be sending a message that substances are a good way to meet needs. It is important for young people to know there are other options for meeting their needs, as well as the consequences that exist because brains are in a critical developmental stage until your mid-20s.”
While smoking cigarettes in young adulthood is typically associated with lower socioeconomic status, alcohol and marijuana use are associated with higher socioeconomic status, according to a study published by the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Visual Arts Teacher and Upper School Coordinator for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Reb Limerick said the depiction of substance abuse in film raises issues about wealth and status.
“Drugs often bring up issues of socioeconomic class,” Limerick said. “We see ultra rich kids snorting lines of cocaine off kitchen islands with no consequences, contrasted with people living in trailer parks smoking crack and getting busted by the cops. [Film represents] the same substances, but [with] different representation and different repercussions.”
From 1996 to 2015, there was a 20% decrease in the number of teenagers who believed smoking marijuana regularly was harmful, according to a study conducted by the University of Michigan. Frazier said teenagers viewing their experiences as fundamentally different from depictions in the mainstream media can be harmful in the context of substance use.
“One thing that many teenagers may not realize is that every person who begins using substances is trying to meet a completely normal and universal human need,” Frazier said. “It’s easy sometimes to think that people who use substances or experience addiction are different somehow, which may even make us feel safer or protected if we don’t see ourselves as being at risk. But we all share the need for things like connection with others, feeling like we fit in and are accepted, the need to experience excitement and thrill, the need to relax and have relief from stress or anxiety.”
*Names have been changed
