Glorification of Drug Use with The Herren Project’s Natalie Delacruz

Halima Duarte, Natalie Delacruz

04.12.2023

TW: Mentions of self harm, suicide, drug abuse

Over the past few years, there has been a growing concern over the portrayal of drug use in the media. Certain television programs, movies, and the news itself has aided in dangerously glorifying drug use and abuse on screen, all while feeding into negative stereotypes that follow users. There are so many aspects of this issue that exist, so with the help of a friend from an organization that works against the stigma, we will tap into a few of these issues.

Natalie and Her Story

Natalie is a second year Political Science and Human Services major and Spanish minor here at Northeastern University from West Hartford Connecticut. She serves as Youth Engagement Specialist for the Herren Project, and is currently doing her co-op there. “When I was in High School, my Vice Principal reached out to me because he heard that the Herren Project– this organization he knew about, was like starting a new club program, and I said sure, because this cause is very special to me because when I was in seventh grade I was having a lot of mental health issues, and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with them– but by the time that my Vice Principal had reached out to me– this was in the tenth grade, I was like mostly sober, so I was very passionate about this so I was like, I’ll start a club! And then they actually started the Youth Ambassador Program, and I was like yeah I’ll be a Youth Ambassador! And then I became the President of the Youth Ambassadors, and now I am their YouthEngagement Specialist.”

The Herren Project

Herren Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 2011 by former Celtics player Chris Herren who is in long term recovery himself. The mission of the Herren Project is to “Help individuals and families to live healthy fulfilling lives by preventing substance misuse, celebrating recovery, and creating resilient communities.” Herren Project has lots of different programs in different realms– including individual recovery services which include getting individuals into different treatment centers. They have family services which include online grief support groups for people who have lost family members to addiction. Lastly, they have their prevention and wellness initiatives, which are the Youth Ambassadors and the clubs they have at highschools that will soon start making college appearances with the help of Natalie and her team.

Media Portrayal of Drug Use

Natalie herself runs a podcast with the Herren Project, where she has discussed drug portrayal in music specifically.

“A lot of songs, like we were analyzing Last Friday Night by Katy Perry, which is like– has been a popular song and even little kids sing it– it’s been on the radio and all that stuff. But it’s about– it’s essentially about getting drunk and blacking out and making all these bad decisions, and it becomes normalized, and the fact that we have our kids singing songs, and they grow up thinking that this is normal. Which we obviously know should not be the normal way of behaving”

When asking Natalie about television programs, we talked about not just the harmful portrayals, but also some stereotypes that may follow it.

“And if you go to TV– at first thought, Euphoria. Which is obviously popular among younger people, teenagers– I know that there is a lot of drug use in the show which could be dangerous for younger people to see and think that should be a normal way of behaving. – I know that the creators of Euphoria talked about how they're trying to say, you know all of this is a problem, and we need to stop and destigmatize things and all of that, but at the same time you are showing all these traumatic things in a way that is really easy to glorify –People dress up like Euphoria characters for Halloween and all of this stuff, and it’s become this huge mainstream social media thing.”

We then shifted gears to another show, Shameless, which depicts a large family living in poverty with an alcoholic father in the early 2000s. The show depicts some comedic elements of Frank’s alcoholism, but also how his alcoholism affects everyone in his family and their friends.

“People already have so so many misconceptions about people who live in poverty, and shows like Shameless where it's like, Debby of course is a teen mom, and Liam– and I just feel like it plays into all these different stereotypes that just can be taken in a very negative light. Frank’s addiction is such a huge part of it, and what I would say that it is important to show these things because most people will never see some sort of addiction from the aspect of drug abuse–so I think Shameless does a really good job of highlighting these really important things, but I think you need to emphasize more in a realistic way. You need to include less of showing the actual drug use but more of the consequences.”

Natalie talks a little bit about how even shows that mention other triggering topics– like suicide, drug abuse, sexual assault, send an even worse message to people in recovery.

“Because I made the mistake of watching 13 Reasons Why when it came out, and it was so incredibly triggering for me, it actually made me relapse– like it was that bad.”

Me and Natalie also dipped into what other shows, media, movies, or TV shows display these images of glorification that may be harmful.

“I think about Mac Miller and his song the Spins, it is called the spins because it is essentially about being crossed, but Mac Miller lost his life to an overdose”

“The biggest trope is that the cool kids, the popular kids are doing it and I feel like that’s such a big thing– If you’ve ever watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower where like this kid whos never drank before goes out with his friends, and they invite him to a party. And then he’s never taken an edible and he eats an edible, he just gets obliterated out of his mind. And he’s like \‘I’m finally cool!’”

I then asked Natalie if, given the chance, if she could sit down with the producer, director, or writer of one of these big time shows like Euphoria that shows drug abuse, what would she ask or say to their producer:

“I feel like there needs to be a better education aspect about it– like people need to know that these things happen, but you need to somehow weave in an educational aspect of its effects, mental health, or just giving people resources like at the end. You know how shows usually put things like ‘if you need help calling these numbers,’ I feel like that is the bare minimum when you are showing crazy things like that.”

Looking back on our interview, I think about what I would want readers to get out of a discussion like this. One thing that I would want to resonate with anyone, no matter a stance or position in this topic, would be that no matter what may sell, what might get views, your life and well being matters more.