Working Class Hero

Singh had no death knell,instead he had endorsements,money,fame and a star status that comes from being one of a tiny handful of Olympic medalists in India. He should have enough perspective,being the son of a bus driver who worked double shifts to pay for Singh and his brother’s boxing training. Even if his career had seen better days,it’s been pretty fantastic and so it’s difficult to understand what may have led him to experiment with something as lethal as heroin.

Singh has enough will power,as competing at a top international level requires endurance and tremendous focus. While a scary number of professional athletes succumb to performance-enhancing drugs,people whose careers depend on their fitness tend to embrace healthy habits. And you would imagine,stay far away from drugs. That’s why you almost believe Singh when he’s quoted as saying that he thought it was a food supplement. 

Drugs have been around in popular culture forever. Jim Morrison sang an ode to heroin in the ’60s while the ’90s fashion was all about decadence — looking used up,worn out and wasted. Trainspotting,the uncomfortable and compelling film on drug use in Scotland,has long enjoyed cult status as a classic. It was a straightforward account of a choice,like it or not,know it or not,it exists. Anyone who has seen it cannot possibly forget the vivid and fascinating details of the ecstacy of a high and the agony of withdrawal. Pulp Fiction is regarded as director Quentin Tarantino’s best work yet.

Many conservatives criticise films like these,insisting that they glamorise addiction and they do have a point of view because peer pressure on a bad day can make you try crazy things. A report published in Addiction Research & Theory found that rap music started off with a strong anti-drug message 15-20 years ago,but has moved to showing drug abuse as a symbol of wealth and status. The hit song,White Lines,which was recorded in 1983,warns that cocaine does nothing but “kill your brain” but the five-year-old 50 Cent track, As the World Turns,refers to cocaine and heroin as cool stuff.  

How influenced are we by all these indirect messages flying at us via different media? Depends probably on what stage you are at in your own life. Young adulthood is a strange time when you’re prone to experimenting with careers,relationships and trying on different identities before finding your own. You’re at your most vulnerable and sometimes,just one bad choice sets you off in a totally different trajectory.

I’m personally a big fan of Cat Marnell,a beauty columnist on the website http://www.xojane.com,who writes in excruciating detail about her own addiction issues. Occasionally a rant,very often Marnell makes no sense at all,but in between somewhere,she makes for compelling reading,especially in her essays on Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston. The drugs probably give her writing an abandon that sober people don’t allow themselves,but that’s not to say you need to be high to be brilliant.

Getting caught out might turn out to be the best thing that happened to Vijender Singh. There’s no quicker way to sober up than having the entire country watching your next move,which will define what Singh really is: a hero,or a heroin addict.

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