Richard Harrington

In the following selection, Washington Post staff writer Richard Harrington examines the longstanding connection between drug use and rock and roll. Drugs such as marijuana and LSD have been positively portrayed in rock music, he notes, but musicians have also used rock to warn against the dangers of heroin. He writes that although most musicians are aware of the dangers of drug abuse, many mistakenly believe that drug use improves their skills. Harrington also suggests that rock musicians and their teenage fans use dangerous drugs such as heroin as a way to rebel against society.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT HEROIN AND MUSICIANS? Though songwriters almost never portray this drug positively, it seems never to be far from the musical world. And when Smashing Pumpkins keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin died of an overdose on July 12, 1996, it was...