Comment by Aseye X
I’m not going to lie. My intention for this article is to counter the scare-stories surrounding recreational drug use, especially MDMA and marijuana. I want my article to stand out from the stereotypical, paternalistic, dismissive view on drugs, and to give a more neutral approach. My aim essentially is just to be frank on drug use in the UK, especially in London. To explain that it is happening but why I don’t think it’s necessarily as much of a problem as people think.
I believe that drug use is an inevitable part of life, even if you only pop the occasional paracetamol pill for the dreaded migraine, or knock back the daily anti-depressant so you can carry on with your god-awful job. I’m sick of it being condemned and written off as a ‘problem,’ and it being a taboo subject. Honestly, I never got the drug talk with my parents. Even now I could never imagine talking to my mother about weed, let alone smoking a spliff with her. Ha! But I think the talk is necessary, because at the end of the day, drugs are out there in circulation, whether they come to you across the pharmacist’s counter or via a friendly meeting at the bus stop with a slip of something in your handbag and a handshake with a twenty squashed in. Think about it. Why else would they sell Rizla longs in the shop? I doubt someone wants to make a really long cigarette *rolls eyes*.
Let me give you a picture. Sunday morning, outside a club in Shoreditch. A young man aged 21-22 barges into me in the nightclub, ‘buzzing’ off his face; his eyes are all over the place, he’s grinding his teeth excessively, and he’s sweating and dancing like a maniac. Has absolutely no rhythm, doesn’t even try to dance properly. Why? Because he’s on MDMA. Like the majority of people at the club, he’s what us youngsters call ‘mandied up’, which comes from the term ‘mandy,’ which comes from MDMA. If you like clubbing, you know that this occurs all the time. It’s an unavoidable fact that you will be barged into by some drugged up teen, so don’t go wearing your most expensive Nikes.
I must admit I’m ambivalent about MDMA usage. When I sat down to write, I was going to write in support of it, but the more I think about what I’m writing, the more I realise I’m actually getting a bit annoyed by it, because more and more kids who can’t handle it are taking it and turning into liabilities. Or maybe it’s because I’m getting old. I do still support it in some way because I honestly believe that, regardless of the laws restricting it, young people are just going to take it anyway and honestly, prohibitions just make it even more desirable. It’s like the little-kid rebellious feeling that you get when you do something that you’re not meant to do, and you get a thrill that soars through your body. I can still remember the thrill of drinking Smirnoff Ice for the first time when I was fourteen!
However, I believe that it’s too late to legalise it (and I feel the same about marijuana); that’s only going to increase its usage, I think. People will just take bombs of MDMA screaming, ‘I can cos it’s legal, it’s legal!’ But in some ways the worst drug is the one that’s legal already: alcohol. You can go on a night out on a proper binge and completely lose your memory, wake up the next morning on a park bench with all your stuff gone or wake up in some strange man’s bed. Alcohol can completely mess up your night, and you can’t even tell yourself it was somehow illicit, rebellious, adventurous – because it was never anything but legal.
Your average eighteen-year-olds going to a drum ‘n’ bass/dubstep club or festival are going to get their MDMA first, stuff it down their top to get through security, then get smashed off their faces. Everybody knows it. That’s why most clubs are obliged to give water away for free! If they don’t, they’re going to get some half-naked, dehydrated passed-out or dead teenager on their hands. That’s how it is.
Recreational drug use – it’s not even about legalisation; it’s about just accepting it without crying over it.