Whos Juan said:
Hey, believe it or not, drug addiction affects lots of non-celebrities too...
It does, but I think there is certainly a strong correlation between wealth and fame (and probably absent parents) and the ability to get drugs. Look at Rob Reiner's kid. He was getting into hard drugs in his early teens and was already in rehab at 15. I don't know about you, but I certainly couldn't afford a coke and heroin addiction in junior high.
My wife grew up in what what became a pretty wealthy community when she was in her early teens. It was even more pronounced when her younger brother hit HS age and the school parking lot was filled with BMW's, Hummers, Lexuses, and the occasional Porsche. He knew A LOT of kids who did drugs (probably more who did than didn't), and many parents as well. Marijuana was very common, but so were steroids, coke, heroin, and pills of all kinds. Some of those kids did not **** around.
It probably doesn't help that producers, directors, actors/actresses, etc often lead busy, hectic lifestyles with long shoots on location or in studios. They may not be entirely absent or uninvolved in their kids' lives, but it's hard to be a present parent if your career demands constant focus and attention along with irregular and often long hours.
And Hollywood has long been known to be a place where drugs are pretty easy to come by. I didn't know if it is any easier than somewhere like Houston, Chicago, NYC, etc, but it certainly has that reputation, especially among the rich and famous. It's not a stereotype born of whole cloth.
It is probably the perfect confluence of many factors that can encourage or enable drug use and addiction that is not going in many other places.
