Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, has had enough of celebrity dopers whose examples of drug use (along with the subsequent fawning media attention and soft penalties they are given) are helping devastate the young throughout the world, but especially in west Africa. Costa specifically mentioned pop singer Amy Winehouse, recent winner of five Grammy awards (shown at right), and supermodel Kate Moss."Coke-snorting fashionistas are not only damaging their noses and brains -- they are contributing to state failure on the other side of the world," wrote Costa, explaining that the cocaine used in Europe first passes through impoverished countries in west Africa.
"In the 19th century, Europe's hunger for slaves devastated west Africa," he said. "Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same." The drug trade, Costa said, has corrupted the governments of some countries, and created addicts in a continent where treatment facilities are rare.
"Amy Winehouse might adopt a defiant pose and slur her way through 'Rehab' (her Grammy Award-winning hit) but does she realize the message she sends to others who are vulnerable to addiction and who cannot afford expensive treatment?" he said.
"For every rebel with a cause, there are 10 others without a clue," Costa wrote. "While some well-meaning pop idols and film stars might rage against suffering in Africa, their work is being undermined by the drug habits of careless peer such as Kate Moss."
