Recent highly-publicized events surrounding well-known supermodels and public drug usage has confirmed what every fashion insider already knows: cocaine abuse exists in the fashion industry at every level, from the glamorous catwalks to exotic photo shoots.
It is no secret that many models use cocaine. However, this is not necessarily just recreational drug use. It is drug use with end-game in mind – to stay thin, whatever the costs. Essentially they are using narcotics in order to compete within their profession – much like a truck driver might do in order to stay up all night and thereby make more deliveries. Worse yet, the usage parallels even the performance-enhancing drug usage aspect of professional athletes in scandal-ridden Major League Baseball.
There is enormous pressure within the fashion/modeling industry to stay thin. These pressures then can quite clearly lend themselves to suggesting – or even requiring – participants take a substance well-known for suppressing appetite as a side-effect. In this way, the harmful medical side-effects of a recreational drug are seen as the benefit. This change of focus results then in a somewhat new phenomenon: the eating disorder as a creation of use and drug addiction.
