Ghana musician, Rex Omar has called on the public to treat people who are addicted to drugs with love and care.
According to him, discriminating against them makes it difficult for them to heal from their addiction.
He made this statement during a discussion on ‘Creative Addictions’, a documentary on drug use among celebrities by Kwame Dadzie which aired on JoyNews on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.
“I will advise those who have not yet fallen victim. People can get into the industry clean, succeed clean and live their lives. The advice is exercise, do a lot of brisk walk and meditate.
To those who are always in, we should not blame them, we should not make them feel lesser than they are, we should just help them,” he said.
Rex Omar also cited shyness and pressure from society as some reasons some creatives get into drug use.
“Most creatives are highly emotional and what people don’t know is most of them are also highly very shy. So if they don’t have it naturally, they always need something to be able to take it to that realm where the creativity can come in handy.
Another aspect is that when you come into the limelight, societal pressures are on you because you have become a star. Being a star doesn’t necessarily reflect in your pocket. Yet society will expect so much from you because now you are almost always on the television screens, your music is being played, if you are a movie star, if you are an actor, you are always on television, if you are a footballer you are always on television. Everybody knows you are popular so society expects a lot from you, that can’t support realistically so then you would need something that can substitute for you to go on. Another thing is that a lot f people have stage fright,” he told the host Sweety Aborchie.
The ‘Abiba’ hitmaker also noted that other showbiz people get introduced to drugs by their handlers or managers. These managers could give drugs to creatives to boost their confidence.
He therefore called on various institutions responsible for education on drug addiction to amplify the education on its side effects.
In ‘Creative Addictions’, some creatives open up on how they found themselves in such a noose and the effects it has had on them. Experts of psychiatry also share their opinion on what can be done to help people get out of drug addiction.