A video of One Direction's Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik almost as high as Tomlinson's voice in Peru, went viral in the last 24 hours. With 1D's 19 million Twitter followers and multi-million record sales, the band are regarded as role models for their plethora of fans. So, it's no surprise that the video has caused mass outpouring of emotions.

For those of you oblivious to One Direction’s existence, imagine the Rolling Stones with 5 band members, and they can’t play instruments, and they can’t write good songs. Actually, the Stones aren’t a great comparison. The only vague similarity is in Mick Jagger and Harry Styles’ hair.

Anyway...

So what?

The video shows Malik and Tomlinson lighting up and sharing a joint, that's all. Even though Malik may think he's as 'hard', 'cool' and 'rock 'n' roll' as Bob Marley – whose face and iconic Rastafarian flag is seen on Malik's vest in the video – it's not the worst thing 1D have done; they make music for crying out loud! And it's not as if they're injecting heroin or other life-threatening drugs. Possession of weed for personal use isn't even illegal in Peru.

Has their image been ruined?

No. Of course not. Whether it be a publicity stunt or as habitual as writing clichéd pop songs, 1D's pot dabbling adds a new bad boy dimension to their once clean-cut boy band image. And teenage girls love a bad boy, right? Well, at least that's what pop culture indoctrinates its youth audience to believe through films, music videos and TV shows.

If anything, the band's popularity will benefit from this. Their loyal supporters will undoubtedly buy three times more 1D merchandise than before to showcase their obsessive dedication and fascist-like support. Perhaps new recruits to the 1D army – an army second only in size to Kim Jong-un’s fan club – will be acquired such as wannabe teen gangsters armed with a smaller vocabulary than their only pubic hair and razor-sharp hashtags; although, I very much doubt that #1Daresuchlads.  

Should they still be role models?

Well that's a stupid question really. The question 'should or shouldn't they' is irrelevant considering that they've got all their hands in the piggy banks of the world's young girls. Let's face it, weed will become the new Facebook, joints will be the new lipstick, and 'blazing up' will become as socially acceptable as reading the Daily Mail.

Quite frankly, how are 1D role models anyway? Not everyone can become multi-million, international selling artists (thankfully). As girls can only aspire towards their male idols to a certain extent, maybe it's their boyfriends they're trying to mould into exact replicas of Harry Styles. And I know a lot of boys that'll willingly hand their soul over to the devil by listening to bubble-gum pop, wearing vests and becoming more designer clothe obsessive than Victoria Beckham. 

To conclude

Although the weed won’t do much damage to 1D’s reputation, unfortunately, don’t be surprised if a hard-core fan goes on hunger strike until Tomlinson and Malik go round their house to personally apologise to them. If you’re a parent, I wouldn’t worry too much. Going by the average age of 1D fans, they’ll probably only understand ‘weed’ by its literal meaning – they’ll end up smoking dandelions like gangster cows.