What If They Gave a Drug War and Nobody Came (Celebrity Edition)

If someone wants to do drugs, as long as it doesn't affect anyone else in a violent manner, as long as he or she isn't corrupting minors or driving under the influence or endangering others, shouldn't a person have that right?

So asketh Brad Pitt, star of quite possibly the most sophisticated movie--really--ever made about Prohibition. That would be Legends of the Fall, in which the dynamic of the Baptist-Bootlegger coalition is expertly dramatized and in which a sitting U.S. congressmen shoots and kills revenuers (sorry, spoiler alert!). Pitt is talking to Esquire in the quote above, about the "15 Things I Think Everyone Should Know." Inexplicably, the drug war point is No. 16, which means it comes first in the list, which also includes tips on diaper-rash ointment, burping your baby, "building green," and Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Hat Tip: To The People, one of the world's best blogs.

Comments

[SxCx]

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Gene Simmons?

[Timothy]

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Umm...Tom Cruise.

[Timothy]

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Umm...Tom Cruise.

[Rimfax]

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Mel Gibso-...no...uh, Scot Sta-...uh, no. I got nothin.

[APL]

It's pretty well known that Pitt is one of the biggest stoners in Hollywood.

[Straight-Edge Guy]

Probably the most famous straightedger is Ian McKay of Fugazi (and formerly Minor Threat) who also kind of got the whole straight edge thing rolling (although he now distances himself from the Straight Edge scene because of the association with violence that it has come to have). I don't know what the B.O. situation is with Ian, but he's pretty punk, so he's probably got Pitt matched.

For Your Education, straight edgers don't have to have any great dedication to anti-drug messaging. I'm straight edge and anti-drug war, and I don't particularly care if other people want to do drugs, I just don't do drugs myself. Most straight edge types I know feel pretty similarly. We do all have B.O. though. That's a rule.

[Lowdog]

Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies is straight-edge, too, as far as I know. He came to a party my friends threw way back around '91 or '92 and the host of the party offered him mushrooms, acid, and whatever else was on hand. Mike was like "no man, I don't do that kinda stuff" and just cruised around the party, chatting with people.

Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist) and especially Steven Perkins from Jane's Addiction didn't seem to share the same outlook as Mike. 🙂

[smacky]

Lowdog,

You met Stephen Perkins?

*jealousy*

Oh yeah? Well, I met Perry Farrell...

[Baylen Linnekin]

I met Perkins and Farrell at Lollapalooza I, where I also met Henry Rollins, who may be the anti-drug/straight-edge/B.O. archetype.

[smacky]

Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin

Been there!

[sr2]

ditto on Rollins...he's probably the most straight-edge and common sense without being preachy...

He seems to be the last bastion of "punk" that remembers when punk was less "Hot Topic" kids w/Green Day records and more "do it yourself, f* authority."

[marcus aurelius]

What if the latest prohibition craze was just a scam?

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-have-we-learned-about-secondhand.html

[mediageek]

I once heard a radio interview with Henry Rollins where they took listener calls.

Some kid called up and was all a-gush about how Rollins was such an inspiration, and that he was sooooo happy that Hank was into Straight Edge.

Rollins cut the kid off mid-sentence and was like "Look, I'm glad you're happy being Straight Edge, but I'm not. I don't need a label for what I do, and I'm not Straight Edge."

So I guess we can assume that Henry Rollins has a stick of Old Spice in his bathroom cabinet.

[Daze]

"Legends of the Fall" is a great novella. I suppose I should see the movie.

But where's the Brown Dog movie already?

[Stevo Darkly]

Who is the straight-edge equivalent of Pitt, both in terms of anti-drug messaging and B.O. appeal?

Ted Nugent!

[a simple caveman blog reader]

I'm unfamiliar with these movie-things, but I think by "B.O." he meant "box office." Maybe.

[Larry A]

What if the latest prohibition craze was just a scam?

It would fit right in with all the others.

[dude]

I'll second the request for a Brown Dog flick. Harrison's a gifted man with a pen

[brian423]

I'll have you know I believe in the death penalty for spoilers.

[Straight-Edge Guy]

I'm unfamiliar with these movie-things, but I think by "B.O." he meant "box office." Maybe.

Probably. But I was really hoping that Nick was making a sly jab at Pitt's rumored antipathy towards showering. So I just wanted to run with that. Was the result funny? I'll let you be the judge.

BTW, as Rollins pointed out in that interview, there is a substantial difference between being straight-edge and simply not doing drugs. I don't think that anyone should have the label forced on them simply because they happen to share a similar choice on drug use.

Abstaining from drugs is a choice. Straight-edge is a philosophy and a lifestyle which incorporates that choice and the philosophy surrounding that choice into a larger context of a music/extreme sports/fashion/body modification subculture. So in many ways calling someone straight edge simply because they don't use drugs is inaccurate. Most Mormons, for example, wouldn't be thrilled at being lumped in with us (I know, I have lots of Mormon friends).

Lest I forget - Sage Francis is straight-edge, as is his producer Joe Beats. Are the peeps here at HNR too old and stodgy to know who he is?

[Nick Gillespie]

Sadly, B.O. meant "box office" to me. What it means to those around me is, alas, their problem.