Just say yes?
The biggest consequence of le gah'sing drugs would be
thepapers having nothing to write about. Isn’t it time we saw things as they are instead of turning drugs into one big drag?
here are a few things in life you can rely on. Big Brother dominating the summer tabloids. hm! invading more privacies with ever longer lenses. the Royal Family and the Kennedy's beating each other off to the next sex/death scandal and Spain‘s World Cup squad being dubbed the great under— achievers. But more interesting — no really — than all of those guarantees. is that Britain will carry on its obsession with drugs. Not that all the Queen‘s subjects are going about their day stoned. wrecked. smashed or wasted. but drugs. as a subject. has this country utterly hooked. And if that's actually not the case. then someone has failed to tell the news editors. Here are just a few of the headlines during one recent weekend‘s banner binge:
‘Addicted to legal substances‘: ‘Call for action to stem deaths of
women alcoholics‘; “Addicts go on the run from rehab‘: ‘Café race result looks like being spliff decision'; ‘Social worker drug rap‘. And on those stories run. longer than a Cambeiwell Carrott.
Contrary to every ‘war against drugs' tabloid campaign. drugs stories aren't just bad news. they can be funny. too. Who didn't smother a chuckle at Bill Clinton‘s claims that he didn‘t inhale or at Roger Mitchell’s insistence that those who thought Partick Thistle would get as high as the SP1. were clearly smoking too much Maryhill marijuana‘.’
The moral minority may express outrage that the youth of Britain are more interested in ('lass A than class war. but the realisation has clearly dawned on the most blinkered of social observers that drugs are an acceptable pan of 21st century Me. Who wakes up still in shock that a teenage heir to the throne has
20 THE LIST 2’) Jam f. Jul 7072
spent time in rehab: or that the former Home Secretary's son was a bone lida dealer: or that the boy members of S Club 7 were catight toking in (‘ovent Garden? liven very public drug abusers can get easy access to Downing Street (the Gallagher‘s) or Buckingham Palace (Sir Paul and the soon-to—be Sir Mick). Some people say that there‘s no room for fence—sitting in the
drugs issue. But surely. those two extremes (ban them all v try the lot) have hampered serious debating on the issue for too long. Yes. drugs can kill. but so do buses and no one is proposing cutting off the supply of public transport. And no. not all drugs should be instantly legalised. but there is still a good case for making pure heroin available to addicts so that they are not poisoned by the muck being sold to them on the black market.
For those who take a hardline anti-drugs stance (let‘s raise a glass to the Daily Rt’t'nl‘d and all its cute whisky advertising). they are discounting the obvious benefits of mind-altering substances. Much research has been conducted to show that cannabis eases the agony for MS sul‘l‘erers and you are tnore likely to die getting in a car with a drunk driver than you will spending your time hugging an ecstasy user.
For a large proportion of this nation. drugs do work. Everything is at its best in moderation. but if it‘s deemed sociable to drink your mates under the table. why shouldn’t society sanction you to get as high as a kite‘.’
rehab?
Who is still in shockthata teenage heir to the throne has spent time in