Recreational drugs are taken by social delinquents and the emotionally-challenged.
Well, that’s what we are led to believe despite statistics showing the growing use of alcohol is a far bigger problem for both the individual and society.
2009 saw over 150,000 prescription items given out by the NHS and Primary Care Trusts for the treatment of alcohol addiction.
Nevertheless, the media and the Government would happily consider anyone that can pronounce the word “rave” a potential opposition member in their war against recreational drugs.
Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Branson, Sting and countless other public figures, together with former chief constables Paul Whitehouse, Francis Wilkinson and Tom Lloyd have come together to form a resolution regarding what can be done to make current drug laws reflect the actual situation in society today.
The lack of belief in current legislation is expressed in the letter written to David Cameron urging him to look at decriminalising the possession of drugs.
They argue:
“Criminalising people who use drugs leads to greater social exclusion and stigmatisation making it much more difficult for them to gain employment and to play a productive role in society.”
Doubt is cast by this unlikely group over the minimal impact the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act has had on the overall use of drugs. This coupled with the stigma many drug users face means there is a need for a review in order to make legislation relevant and effective.
Unfortunately, it seems our daily papers are littered with seemingly generic horror stories illustrating sexed up images of British youth indulging in what we are lead to believe, are bottomless vats of illegal powders and pills.
You have to hand it to them; the constant scare-mongering - despite the hypocrisy regarding the present alcohol epidemic - has been well executed by the press. Countless publications have honed in on the fact Class A drugs being shunned by Donna from the estate only to be used by Oscar in Chelsea thus, succeeding in pulling at our vodka- saturated heartstrings with the knowledge that this really could happen to anyone.
The press have cottoned on to the fact that posh people can be druggies too so now, we are bombarded with endless tales of the loss of youthful promise, featuring Elizabeths and Jacobs dying of heart attacks in the arms of their middle-class parents after trying an Ecstasy pill for “the first time” - taken to celebrate 10 A*s in their GCSE’s no doubt.
It certainly doesn’t help that said stories will probably be accompanied by a ten year old primary school photo on the front page. And we recoil in horror as we thank God our children are safe and warm at Rachael’s “doing homework” as we clutch the full red wine glass that we have as a “treat”, every night.
Seldom mentioned are any underlying illnesses or additional drugs that were taken in tandem with conventional party drugs. And even then, the purity of any street drug will always be questionable.
These tales are rare but are misleadingly interpreted as representative of youth culture. The fact is, in 2008, there were fewer than 300 deaths due to Ecstasy and Cocaine use, far less than the 6,785 alcohol related deaths in the same year.
An incredibly small minority of recreational drug users die after taking illegal drugs but there’s no shying away from the tragedy for the deceased and the families involved. However, it’s high time we were realistic with ourselves: these deaths are few and far between and are generally the result of mixed substance abuse or unlucky experimentation, as brutal as that may sound. And even if this wasn’t the case, it doesn’t look like even the threat of life in prison has put anyone off a Saturday night drug binge.
The hypocrisy shown in the forced admission of drug taking by members of government just adds insult to injury.
University snapshots of David Cameron and Tony Blair have been published featuring them both red-eyed and merry after enjoying Cannabis joints, or “Marijuana” they prefer to call it because it sounds a bit less threatening.
But of course, in those days it wasn’t mixed with Heroin, crushed up bullets and it wasn’t as strong. And anyway, they come from nice families and were just experimenting so let’s not mention this again.
Times have changed. The socio-economic background of an individual is of little or no relevance when it comes to recreational drug use and we can see this in the recent transition of former “dinner party drug” cocaine. Sources from outside Brixton Underground tell me the going rate for a line of Charlie can be as little as £2.50. Cheap as chips. When you can buy an Ecstasy pill for £3, trust funds do not hold any significance. The chances that a young person has experimented with drugs at least one in their lives before adulthood is high and for us to think otherwise is being naïve at best.
The reality is that there are people who make a lot of money from us buying both illegal and legal drugs on the black market. This coupled with the large quantities of party-goers that simply want to get high, will result in the abuse of substances.
With this is mind, the solution really is education and a much more open platform for young people to openly discuss their opinions on drugs. Organisations such as Frank do this without the usual patronising tone young people hear when they are told about narcotics. It wouldn’t hurt for adults to lead by example and cut back on the alcohol too perhaps.
By no means does this article condone the use of drugs, but passing bills left, right and centre on bans of the production and distribution of new drugs is totally a waste of time. We all know it takes just a few manufacturing changes here and there to create an almost identical drug with practically the same effects. It’s a losing battle.
In England, it seems the only way we can deal with a problem is to feature it on the front page of newspaper publication, moan about it without mentioning relevant facts and create some scapegoats to explain why society isn’t what it used to be. E.g. Gordon Brown, rap music and Polish Immigrants.
Quite frankly, I think we are all so aware of public information campaigns regarding the consumption of drugs to know if you can’t buy it at your local Tesco, you probably shouldn’t consume it. But seeing as we do anyway, we should educate our families on the effects and not leave it to 20p tabloids to give us the “facts”.
In order to address a problem with an aim of actually combating it, we need to stop poking at the subject with a long stick and pin it down because chances are if your children are between the ages of 16-21 and it’s a Friday night, they probably aren’t at Rachael’s doing homework. They are probably sniffing their first line of coke with the £10 you’ve given them for a takeaway pizza.
