Forget politics, if you want strange bedfellows go no farther than the world of substance abuse in popular culture.  This week’s odd couple is none other than the glamorous and petite former tennis star Martina Hingis and the beefy and gruff current football coach Andy Reid.  Whether it’s fair of not - this week they are the public face of celebrity drug use.

Hingis retired from tennis after acknowledging that a drug test at Wimbledon returned positive for cocaine.   Reid was thrust into the spotlight when his two sons were sent to prison for multiple drug offenses and a judge described the family home as a “Drug Emporium.”

But some questions arise and I would like to hear some answers from other parents.  First of all, do we as a society totally dismiss Ms. Hingis’s claims of innocence?  (Certainly, we’ve heard other athletes and celebrities claim innocence only to be proven guilty later.)  Does the fact that it was cocaine and not a performance enhancing drug, change our collective perspective?  And, here’s a dicier one, does the fact that she’s not American play into the reaction she is receiving?

Now, onto Mr. Reid.  Are his sons’ troubles really newsworthy?  After all, the boys are not public figures?  Is the public debate about their drug abuse, or our perceived opinions of his parenting?

I’d like to hear what you think. 

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  Posted by: James Ponti