Glorification of Drugs in American Film

Sex, drugs, and violence: the three main ingredients to a blockbuster movie. That is, if one ignores writing, cinematography, and the years of work put in by the cast and crew. There is a sense of decaying corruption that underlines the American film industry, a trend that has been going on for quite some time since the times of ridiculous propaganda films such as Reefer Madness that came out in 1938. However, there seems to have been a moral decomposition within media that has left subtle odor over American society. The impressionable youth are the ones that are mainly affected by the depictions of questionable behavior in motion pictures. Does art imitate life? Or is life, imitating art? Mostly everyone has an opinion on the matter, but nothing can be concretely proven of such an intangible topic. Setting aside the topics of sex and violence, drug use can be seen creeping into most films in the past decade. Is America, especially its youth, affected by the representation of illicit drug use in American film or is it misconstrued panic raised by worried parents and the government?