From Bad Bunny singing “el perico es blanco, sí, sí, el tusi rosita” (coke is white, tusi is pink) in NUEVAYoL, to Troye Sivan’s ode to poppers in Rush, the pop world is full of drug references. While they’re certainly not uncommon in the lyrics of indie groups, they’re now making their way into mainstream music. Legal drugs have also taken on a new relevance. If until recently smoking seemed a thing of the past among celebrities who had once glamorized the vice (even Carrie Bradshaw said goodbye to her beloved Marlboro Lights!), Dua Lipa makes no secret of it, neither in her concerts nor in the images she shares from her trips.

While singers once went out of their way to hide their smoking habit, things have changed now: Rosalía celebrated her birthday with trays full of cigarettes and even gave Charlie XCX a bouquet of cigarettes. The latter chose a limited vinyl edition of her album ‘Brat’ filled with a white powder that the singer used as a nod to a narcotic substance.

Other figures in the entertainment world have opened the debate about drug use. The comedian Chelsea Handler not only speaks openly about her drug addiction on her shows but also in every interview she gives. “I love drugs… especially microdosing. It bothers me how people stigmatize drug use. Drugs can help so many people,” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Far from trying to conceal their vices, many celebrities have made them part of their narrative and even their personality, normalizing the habits and even giving them a veneer of glamour or humor.

But in the era of media fragmentation, the treatment of addictive substances by public figures with a prominent social media presence poses many challenges, given the complexity of regulating what happens in new mass media and social networks. Beatriz Pestaña, Communications Director at the Spanish youth foundation Fad Juventud, notes that Spanish legislation prohibits the broadcast of content that promotes drug use on television, radio and audiovisual platforms. “Although laws exist, it is very difficult to act because it means setting limits on humor. It is true that it is not broadcast during children’s hours, but at Fad Juventud we appeal to the responsibility of content creators, both on television and on social networks,” she says.

The singer Justin Bieber made a nod to drugs as well when he recently showed off a design inspired by his wife Hailey Bieber’s phone cases on his Instagram profile. While the model’s case features a space for carrying the popular lipsticks from her beauty brand, Rhode, the singer’s design has a space designed to carry joints. Luis Miguel Real, a writer who has explored the way he believes some famous people and influencers encourage drug use, writes that “cannabis influencers deny the risks of excessive consumption and argue that the problem lies in other people’s prejudices, and claim it’s okay to smoke 10 joints a day (I’m sure the drug dealers will support that). ‘I don’t have a problem, you do, you’re an old-fashioned person full of prejudices,’ they say. And they still believe it after saying it out loud.”

The Daily Mirror dubbed Kate Moss Cocaine Kate in 2005 when it published hidden camera footage taken by one of its reporters of her snorting cocaine. “After having evaluated the situation, H&M decided that a campaign with Kate Moss is inconsistent with H&M’s clear dissociation of drugs” the Swedish brand announced. Brands such as Chanel and Burberry followed suit and distanced themselves from the model.

It is a scenario that contrasts radically with today’s world. Take Elon Musk, who didn’t hesitate to tell Don Lemon in an interview that he uses ketamine “prescribed by a doctor” every few weeks. And when someone who has brought their child to the Oval Office speaks openly about something that would have been carefully concealed in the past, it’s not unreasonable to say that drugs now occupy a remarkably normal place in popular discourse.

All of this is also happening at a time when various governments around the world are considering the therapeutic viability of some drugs. In the case of Spain, the head of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso of the conservative Popular Party, has used this debate to attack her political adversaries. One time she said of the Minister of Health, Mónica García of the leftist party Más Madrid: “She likes joints and I like fruit. To each their own.” Oihan Iturbide, a clinical biologist and editor of Yonki Books, believes that her words not only trivialize but also degrade the public debate, something he claims impacts people’s health. “The therapeutic use of cannabis seeks to alleviate chronic pain in thousands of people, refractory epilepsy, or the severe side effects of chemotherapy, to name just a few. When a regional premier reduces that to a schoolyard joke, she’s not only misinforming the public, she’s also reinforcing a framework that is highly stigmatizing. It’s as if she were saying that anyone who uses cannabis is lazy and irresponsible. I think we all know that using a drug as a medicine is not the same as using it in the middle of a teenage drinking party,” he explains. This specialist also believes it’s important to emphasize that ridiculing the therapeutic use of cannabis reveals a double standard. “The premier of Madrid demonizes a legitimate and well-regulated drug use, and at the same time whitewashes the massive consumption of alcohol, a perfectly normalized substance, but equally or more problematic.”

All the sources consulted for this story agreed on the importance of not forgetting the dangers of normalizing alcohol consumption. The Ministry of Health indicates that it is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in Spain and contributes to the development of more than 200 health problems and injuries, as well as premature death. It is also one of the main risk factors associated with chronic and non-communicable diseases. “We have to make a great effort to change its narrative ecosystem,” says Iturbide. “We would have to ensure that consumption is not synonymous with belonging to a group (identity issues) and, of course, that there is alcohol-free leisure available. To achieve this, we would have to do what we have already done with tobacco: regulate advertising, eliminate sponsorship at events, raise taxes, and prohibit its consumption in certain places. I think we are still very far from that.”

At the same time, smoking is once again considered cool. The New York Times has just published an article denouncing how pop culture is glamorizing tobacco. Journalist Esther Zuckerman explains that everyone from Dakota Johnson in Materialists to Addison Rae and Lorde, and even Beyoncé, who lit up on stage during her Cowboy Carter tour, are all contributing to glamorizing the reputation of this legal drug.

María Jesús Sánchez, director and therapist at the Mooment Adicciones rehab center and a recovered addict herself, notes that the consumption of certain substances has been considered an inherent part of certain professions that include creative processes. “From Hemingway, who was an alcoholic, to John Lennon, who supposedly composed while high on LSD, we have several examples of the bucolic, semi-depressive character who sought inspiration in substances, which has given the impression that drugs are very good for success. It’s true that there can be success on many occasions while you’re taking drugs, but then, what? Some haven’t fallen, but others are dead.”

Addiction psychologist Luis Miguel Real makes a point. “One of the most toxic myths we continue to carry around is that of the ‘tormented genius,’ the writer who needs to drink to write, the rocker who gets into everything because it ‘feeds his art.’ And since some have gone far, we believe that self-destruction is part of talent. That suffering and consumption are part of the price of being brilliant. But they aren’t. They’re the price of not knowing how to take care of yourself. Once again, survivor bias plays tricks on us. We focus on Bukowski or Amy Winehouse, but we don’t see the hundreds who died without having written anything or recorded an album. Or those who ended up broken, forgotten, inglorious. It’s very easy to glorify chaos when you’re not in charge of cleaning it up. That addictive consumption wasn’t a catalyst for their success, it was an obstacle. They managed to succeed despite alcoholism, not because of it,” he says.

In his book The Lie of Willpower, Luis Miguel Real argues that people focus much more on the few success stories than on the vast majority of failures because fans don’t like to think about the long list of celebrities whose artistic careers and personal lives went down the drain due to drug use. “It’s much more satisfying to forget about them and think only about those who are apparently successful, as if that were proof that ‘everyone can do it’ and there’s no risk. Honey, Elon Musk isn’t a millionaire because he smokes weed, but because he inherited his family’s emerald mining fortune,” he writes.

There’s a very dangerous narrative that’s repeated in both the political and technological worlds, Real adds: the brilliant genius who lives on the edge, sleeps little, binges on coffee, anti-anxiety pills or microdoses, and still succeeds. “They tell us that this ‘moderate’ consumption is part of the secret to success. That if you want to be at the top, you have to push your body and mind beyond their limits, and if you need something to hold you over, then go for it. But this is a mirage. Because we’re falling into the survivor bias: we only listen to the few who have succeeded despite consuming, not because of it,” he explains. “When someone with millions in their account says they microdose LSD to be more creative or can endure twelve hours of meetings with five cups of coffee and two anti-anxiety medication pills, many people will think that’s the key. But what they don’t see is the wear and tear behind it, the emotional scars, the rock-bottom mental health. Addiction isn’t promoted solely with substances. It also sells an idea: that living large means living without limits. And that, sooner or later, takes its toll. Even if you don’t post it on Instagram.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition