The goal of this exercise is to understand the impact of groups norms, pop culture, and peer pressure and/or role modeling on an individual's behavior.

1. Assign your students to use the Internet or library to do research on musicians whose lives were affected or ended by drug use. Each student should be assigned to select one musician to do a report on. Their goal is to understand how the media glamorized their life and compare the media portrayal to the true story.
2. Once your students have completed their report, have them share their findings with the entire class in an oral report.
3. Now you can lead your students in a discussion on why drugs were a part of each musician's life.
4. Finally, assign your students to go home and go through their personal music collection in search of songs that have lyrics about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Their goal is to return to class with a list of at least five songs with this content area, to have rated each song in their list as to whether the song portrays the subject manner in a positive or negative way, and to bring the cd/and or lyrics to at least one song with them to class.
5. Lead your students in a discussion
6. Play a song to the class that addresses the negative consequences of substance abuse. Discuss what students think the song is about, and then distribute lyrics to the class for additional discussion.

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