The Impact of Legal and Illegal Drug Usage: Mac Miller's Case Study

This essay delves into the tragic story of Mac Miller, a celebrated musician who battled drug addiction, and analyzes the impact of both legal and illegal substances on his life. The essay begins by defining drugs and categorizing them into opioids, depressants, and hallucinogens, providing examples and detailing their effects on the body and mind. It then examines Mac Miller's struggles with substance abuse, starting with marijuana as a gateway drug and progressing to more dangerous substances like lean (promethazine and codeine) and the fatal combination of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol. The essay discusses the pressures of the music industry and the young artist's attempts to cope with fame and criticism through drug use. Furthermore, the essay compares the effects of alcohol and marijuana, two widely abused substances, highlighting the differences in their impact on the body, their addictive potential, and their legal status. The essay concludes that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, emphasizing that the legality of a substance does not directly correlate to its consumption rate or negative impacts. It underscores the dangers of addiction and the importance of understanding the risks associated with both legal and illegal drugs, using Mac Miller's story as a poignant case study. The essay utilizes APA format and includes references from scholarly sources.

Running head: LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE 1
Legal and Illegal Drug Usage
Student’s Name
University Affiliation

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE 2
Drugs are substances whose intake alters the normal functioning of the body. Legal drugs
are found in hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics, and are therefore obtained either under a
prescription or under the customer’s request. In a legal jurisdiction, illegal drugs are not allowed
either in production or distribution. However, the line between this two categories can grow
blurry since even legally produced drugs get distributed and sold illegally. Drug abuse can occur
when the user misuses the drugs for reasons beyond medical needs. Drug classification can also
be according to their particular effects on the functioning of the body. Three major categories of
drugs include opioids, depressants, and hallucinogens. Opioids such as codeine and morphine
bind to opioid receptors in the body and numb pain reception. Central Nervous System (CNS)
depressants slow down the brain activity and are useful in treating anxiety, panic and sleep
disorder. Stimulants, on the other hand, increase the operation of the central nervous system in
the body including drugs that are pleasurable or invigorating. Malcom James McCormick passed
away in September 2018 due accidental drug overdose after mixing alcohol, cocaine, and
fentanyl (Murphy, 2019). This essay will explore the artist better known as Mac Miller and his
drug addiction while examining the impact of legal and illegal drug use.
The tragic story of Mac Miller’s death at 26-years old robbed the music industry of great
talent. The young rapper and producer entered the music industry as he turned nineteen, moving
to Los Angles from his hometown, Philadelphia (Coscarelli & Caramanica, 2018). Mac Miller
shared how he found it challenging to cope with the enormous demands of the music industry at
an early stage of his life. Critics were on his back with negative reviews seemingly getting the
better part of him, even though his songs were doing well on the billboard. Consequently, Mac
Miller sought an escape from the negative reception to his music. Living in Los Angles as a
young, rich and famous man, he found Marijuana quickly and it offered him his first escape.

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE 3
Sooner afterward, it was not enough, and the rapper got intertwined in a case of drug addiction
and emotional struggles.
In a 2013 interview with Complex magazine, Mac Miller opened up about his addiction
to lean, a drug cocktail containing promethazine – a sedative- and codeine – a schedule II
narcotic (Maas, 2019). Even though mixing drugs can be dangerous, the young rapper got
hooked to these cocktails that would ultimately cost him his life. The promethazine found in the
lean is a depressant that induced a state of calm and relaxation on the user. The drug mixture that
was responsible for his demise contained two opioids fentanyl and cocaine, and alcohol a
depressant. A personal YouTube documentary posted by the artist in 2016 explains how
marijuana was a gateway drug for the artist to try hard drugs. The musician told of his drug use
that had started in high school as a 15-year-old where he sold and used them. At this
development stage of the brain users are more vulnerable to drug addiction.
Over the past years, marijuana is a drug that has been at the center of drug use
discussions around the world. The legalization of the drug has come after lobbyists in several
countries argued that the drug had numerous medical uses that could help patients suffering from
diseases such cancer and HIV (Nelson, 2015). The argument was that marijuana was a drug like
any other that had widely popular side effects. Nonetheless, some legal drugs have side effects
that are much more lethal and severe than those of marijuana. Marijuana is a depressant,
hallucinogen and stimulant. Hallucinogens are a type of drug that causes profound distortions in
a person’s perceived reality. These qualities of marijuana have made it extremely popular for
recreational use all around the world. Alcohol is also a widely abused substance in the world. Its
classification falls under a depressant, anxiolytic and sedative based on the level of intake. An
anxiolytic is a psychoactive drug that works to prevent anxiety in a person.

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE 4
Marijuana and alcohol are two of the most abused drugs in the world. While alcohol is
available in most countries legally, marijuana has just recently started finding its ways to legal
drug use after years of illegality. Countries like Canada, Chile, and South Africa have recently
passed legislation to allow licensed medical use of marijuana, while recreational use of the same
excludes treatment as a significant offense. Comparing the effects of alcohol and marijuana
reveals the extent to which they differently alter the bodies functioning. Alcohol is the leading
health risk factor across the globe for people aged between 15 and 49 years, but there have been
zero documented deaths from marijuana use alone (Brodwin, 2018). Marijuana use is also
significantly less addictive than alcohol use according to medical research (Mallett, Turrisi,
Trager, Sell & Linden-Carmichael, 2019). Moderate and low alcohol drinking is linked with
lower risks of heart disease in medical research, while marijuana speeds up the heart rate that
could negatively impact the heart in the short term. Both of these drugs cause a risk of catching
psychiatric diseases such as psychosis and schizophrenia for weed users and depression and
anxiety for alcohol users. Marijuana is mostly taken to be least harmful than alcohol since its
sole usage gets taken to be non-lethal regardless of the amount of consumption in comparison to
alcohol, which is lethal if overused.
In summary, both substances impact users’ health negatively in different ways, but
alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. An addiction to a substance increases the dangers of
the drug by robbing users of their free will. Since alcohol is easily addictive than marijuana it
causes a significantly higher risk to a new user than marijuana. The comparison between these
two substances also points out that the legality of a substance will not directly relate to its
consumption rate or its negative impacts. This is because even legal drugs can cause harmful
effects in users’ more than illegal drugs.

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE 5
References
Brodwin, E. (2018). We took a scientific look at whether weed or alcohol is worse for you —
and there appears to be a winner. Retrieved 5 October 2019, from
https://www.businessinsider.com/alcohol-marijuana-which-worse-health-2017-11?IR=T
Coscarelli, J., & Caramanica, J. (2018). Mac Miller, Rapper Who Wrestled With Fame and
Addiction, Dies at 26. Retrieved 5 October 2019, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/arts/music/mac-miller-dead.html?
action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Maas, E. (2019). Mac Miller Turned to Drugs After 'Blue Slide Park' Criticism. Retrieved 5
October 2019, from https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/1535980/mac-
miller-turned-to-drugs-after-blue-slide-park-criticism
Mallett, K., Turrisi, R., Trager, B., Sell, N., & Linden-Carmichael, A. (2019). An examination of
consequences among college student drinkers on occasions involving alcohol-only,
marijuana-only, or combined alcohol and marijuana use. Psychology of Addictive
Behaviors, 33(3), 331-336. doi: 10.1037/adb0000458
Murphy, H. (2019). Mac Miller’s Death Leads to Drug Charge Against California Man.
Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/us/mac-miller-
death-arrest.html
Nelson, B. (2015). Medical marijuana: Hints of headway? Despite a conflicted regulatory
landscape, support for medical marijuana is growing amid increasing evidence of
potential benefits. Cancer Cytopathology, 123(2), 67-68. doi: 10.1002/cncy.21524