I recently read a news article about celebrities on drugs – why some of them die, and why some of them don’t. The article quoted Duff McKagan, the original bass player for the rock band Guns N’ Roses. He was a longtime drug and alcohol addict who nearly died from an exploding pancreas when he was 30. He has now gone through drug rehab, is no longer addicted to either drugs or alcohol and has written a memoir entitled: It’s So Easy (And Other Lies).

McKagan says he had to be scared to death to finally get help. He also had some very interesting things to say about why celebrities seem to have more of an alcohol or drug problem than others.

He said: “What actors, singers, athletes, even CEOs have that regular people might not have is more access to drugs, more time to indulge, more money to pay for it, and often a horde of enabling hangers-on who are financially dependent on them and thus more motivated to supply substances for them. It adds up to a situation hard to walk away from.”

The other thing celebrities and other high-powered people experience is people wanting to make less of them.

The old expression ‘Those who can – do. Those who can’t – criticize’, takes many forms.

Those who can’t may become professional critics, they may criticize privately but openly, or they make less of the person in a way that seems like they’re actually helping – like they have the person’s best interests at heart.

That certainly applies to the ‘hangers-on’ McKagan talks about, who obviously have only their own interests at heart, but it can also apply to parents, friends, teachers, coaches and mentors.

So, celebrities get criticism coming at them from every angle. Their work is criticized by critics, their personal lives are criticized and can be all over the news, every error they make becomes a public event celebrated by gossip columnists. Their clothes, hair, make-up, weight gain or loss, their nose, their lips, their choice of people they have relationships with – everything about them seems to become public domain.

To prevent a life of stress and the possibility of drug abuse and alcoholism, anyone who is in the spotlight should first and foremost recognize those people for what they are and get them out of their lives. And anyone who’s giving them advice that doesn’t further their career in a positive way shouldn’t be anywhere near them.

The question of which celebrities die from drugs and which don’t isn’t really the most important question. Anyone can die from drugs. The real question is which celebrities are able to resist the temptations of drugs and alcohol, and which are not.

The people around them are the most important element. If they are surrounded by people who really do have their best interests at heart – and if they get rid of the others – there’s a good chance that drugs and alcohol will never be a problem, and they’ll never need a drug or alcohol rehab program.

In fact, this doesn’t just apply to celebrities – it applies to everyone.

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According to a news story this week, heroin production in Afghanistan has increased 61% in the last decade. They’re pretty upset about this in England where more than 90% of the heroin on the street comes from Afghanistan. They’ve also pretty much given up on drug rehab in England – they’re now considering making heroin legally available to heroin addicts just to reduce the level of crime and the burden on the health care system.

The increase in Afghanistan’s heroin production is also causing a bit of a political mess:  the Prime Minister says that one of the major reasons England agreed to join in on the war in Afghanistan was to get the Afghanistan opium coming into England under control – i.e., put a stop to it.

Without getting political about this, I have to say that war certainly isn’t going to put Afghanistan in a position to develop a gross national product other than the deadly poppy seed used to make heroin.

In a country whose infrastructure is destroyed, where non-military deaths happen every minute of the day – losing parents, spouses and children, where there is virtually no opportunity left to do something productive, the people are going to fall back on whatever they know and can do.

It’s the same in Russia and many of the countries that used to be the USSR, and in other countries around the world: Lack of commerce leaves many people starving, so they take advantage of the fact that some things are hard to get and, instead, make those things available through the black market.

These types of situations are high among the reasons people turn to alcohol and drugs in the first place.

Would we still have alcoholics and drug addicts, would we still need alcohol and drug rehab programs treatment in a world of peace, health and safety, a world where everyone has the opportunity to produce something of value, something they can be proud of and for which they receive adequate exchange?

Probably. But I would bet it would be far less of a problem.

If you’re interesting in ensuring your kids don’t grow up with alcohol or drug addiction problems, try to help them create an environment of peace, health, safety and productivity. It will go a long way to making them happy with themselves and their lives.

And if there is one common denominator among people who drink too much and take drugs, it is that they are unhappy and do not feel good about themselves.

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