More than a year has passed since New Orleans celebrated the Saints’ first Super Bowl championship.
Since then, the Green Bay Packers have usurped the coveted title, yet exalted Saints quarterback Drew Brees still regularly appears on NyQuil’s television commercials.
In one commercial, Brees is shown passed out on a bed, clutching a pillow. He then pulls away from the pillow and tosses his arms over his head, emulating a sacked quarterback — all the while snoring like a bear.
I’ve probably seen this commercial a dozen times, but it only recently dawned on me — Brees is high in these commercials.
Before you think I’m high for writing that, let me explain myself.
The terms “high” and “drunk” are tossed around so thoughtlessly that they’ve lost their meaning. People often use the terms separately, as if they actually denote some sort of measurably different phenomena.
When the effects of cocaine, marijuana and heroine are observed, we apply the term “high,” and when alcohol is consumed, we use the word “drunk.” But the way marijuana use biochemically affects our bodies is no more different to alcohol use than cocaine use.
In other words, there is no objective or scientific method of saying, “this gets you high, but that gets you drunk.”
It is much easier to throw away old distinctions and broadly categorize all drugs, including alcohol, as substances that induce an altered state of mind — you get high.
In his commercials, Brees is in a NyQuil-induced stupor. In fact, most of NyQuil’s advertisements involve happily zonked-out individuals.
NyQuil Cold and Flu, an over-the-counter medication, is used to treat, rather than cure, the symptoms of the common cold. The common cold is a viral infection, yet NyQuil contains no antivirals.
However, NyQuil does contain sedatives and hypnotics, as its actual purpose is to make you too high to care about being ill anymore.
More appropriately, NyQuil’s active ingredients are conveniently mixed in a 10 percent alcohol by volume solution, a higher alcohol concentration than most beers — so you get more high with your high.
Although the recommended dosage of NyQuil induces a harmless high, increased dosages can emulate effects similar to PCP (angel dust) and ketamine (special K).
Oddly enough, NyQuil is available to anyone without a prescription as long as they are 18 or older, and according to
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, NyQuil is the single most abused over-the-counter cough or cold medicine.
Does that mean we should ban NyQuil or limit its use to those 21 or older?
Absolutely not.
But our permissive attitude toward NyQuil usage sticks out to me as a logical inconsistency in the way society views drugs.
I understand no drugs, including NyQuil, are meant to be abused, yet we are afforded the right to use NyQuil at our own discretion. We are allowed the opportunity to exercise self-control.
On the other hand, any level of marijuana or cocaine use is automatically considered illegal — no flexibility offered.
This issue highlights the confusion surrounding drug use, as some level of use has been deemed acceptable. However, the way we make these distinctions seems to have no method or reason.
Why do I have to be 21 to buy Mike’s Hard Lemonade, while I only have to be 18 to purchase NyQuil, hallucinate and then pass out?
If Brees inhaled marijuana on television, his family-friend image would crumble, yet his quasi-comatose condition is a welcome and comical sight to behold.
All the while, we are somehow expected to take the War on Drugs seriously.
What are we, high?
Chris Freyder is a 21-year-old biological sciences junior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Cfreyder.