Last year, nearly four million Britons used illicit drugs

Tag : Solid Towels
So I don't perform under the influence. Any drugs I choose to takewill only be after I've performed. I don't think I want, or canafford, to be unprofessional and experiment with speed and ketamineon stage, even if I think it might make me interact with theaudience better.
I like speed socially. I last took some three or four days ago, atsomeone else's gig. I was dancing around having funnyconversations. You have so much energy on good speed and the nextday you've lost about a stone - that's what I like about it. I wasasked last week if I wanted to chip £10 in for a £60bag of coke, but it turned out to be ketamine. All the young peopleare getting into ketamine now, but it makes you quite aggressive. Itook ecstasy a couple of weeks ago with my boyfriend. Ecstasy inthe old days was always good vibey, but the pills today, like thetechno, have become more erratic.
I certainly won't dabble with crack any more, like I used to - ittakes your soul away, you look a mess and you become an unpleasantperson. I think if I didn't have the band to focus on, if I didn'tsee opportunities in life, I might be more inclined. The fact isthere are young people all over the country who see that even ifthey had a job, it's so low paid they'll never be able to afford ahome and a family. So they're taking drugs to deal with it, orselling drugs as a way to have something.
The other thing about Britain is it currently has the worst drugsin the world, in terms of quality, cleanliness and the user'sability to measure them and be able to judge their tolerance tothem. Because we're an island, and because of terrorism andsecurity, people here are becoming acclimatised to bad-qualitydrugs. If you believe that people go through behavioural phases,moving through periods of taking drugs and growing out of them,then the real concern should be the decreasing quality of whatthose people - and the poor, especially - are taking.
Jude, 40, illustrator and designer, London
Drugs: prescription benzodiazepines and other - non-prescription - drugs
Spends: £10 a week
I take clonazepam and diazepam because they help me draw anddesign, but I also take them to help with anxiety, nerves,twitching, bodily aches. Any job where you have to have a verysteady hand and stay calm is helped by Valium or any of thebenzodiazepines. I read that snipers take them to steady their gripand I've met a surgeon who uses them for the same reason. To drawwell, especially to cope with a client or someone visiting to besketched, benzodiazepines can be essential. But generally to workalone and really concentrate, with confidence, without shaking,they help.
I've broken the back of two portraits this week and that probablywouldn't have happened without the 'pams. But it's not quite assimple as that. I have to get the doses and timing right. I preferto take clonazepam because it's milder, takes longer to kick in andis less addictive. But I took diazepam on Wednesday because I'darranged to see friends but couldn't quite cope with socialising.Also, I was afraid about bumping into someone I recently came outof a relationship with.
Some people might take them for fun, but I'm not doing that. I'mnot out looking for 10 for a fiver on street corners... not really.Maybe eggs - temazepam capsules - which are great for sleeping. ButI usually rely on the goodness of doctors. I'm stocked up at themoment, but in a month, six weeks - and this feeds into the anxiety- I'm looking at an appointment with a consultant who's going to beasking me how many I've been putting aside for rainy days and whatI'm drinking and... 20 questions. She might be wanting my liver ormy blood to be tested.
Because benzodiazepines store up in your body fat, I've been doinga lot of exercise recently. I've not had muscles like this before.The exercise is about cleaning the system, making what I take moreeffective, and also fighting some of the anxiety in a physical way.Cycling helps. Recently I cycled home from the studio too late,having taken two or three 10mg tablets at the studio, and I wentinto a skip. That wasn't good. I was in the relationship then. Shewasn't sure what she wanted. Since it ended I've not had theanxiety of performing for her, but I've also been anxious about therelationship ending.
At their best, benzodiazepines basically make me feel reallyrelaxed and really productive and then really able to wind down.They're good for insomnia, temazies [temazepams] especially, andthey can knock me out, sometimes with whisky, so I'm not toosleepless to be unable to work the next day. I like playing pokeron the internet in the evening, and low 'pams can help that, unlessI take too much too early. Last night I timed it pretty well and Iwas a winner.
Ellie, 28, works in TV, Manchester
Drugs: ecstasy, cocaine, skunk
Spends: 'probably' £50 a week
On Tuesday night I did a shoot for an alternative magazine, a bitkinky, and coke sort of went with the job, it's the least youexpect. But my day job is in TV production, where there's lots ofcocaine, generally, although my boss really frowns on drugs. Whenyou boil it down, drugs are a social thing, for weekends. Andalmost always with my best friend, usually at clubs or at her flat.That's what drugs mean to me - friendship, laughter, dancing. OnThursday we got into two clubs under false names. She can get anyman to buy us a bottle of champagne, and I could, too. But, at theend of the day, drugs are what we're really looking for. We were onthis terrace smoking and we had a little coke from this bloke. Wetook the piss so much and he still drove us home and gave us whathe had left.
The first time I had good cocaine before sex was the first time Ireally enjoyed sex. My sister said, 'It was just luck,' but it'sbeen like that since. I'm not advocating it for that reason. Youhear some men are useless [on cocaine], terrible. Maybe the womensaying that are useless, too, or they've been disappointed like me.I do have sex without cocaine, but it's never quite the same.
I'm trying to think of drawbacks. I get sweaty. But I drive better,I park better, I chat better, I feel better and make love better. Idon't believe everyone is better looking on coke, but when you'rewith people who do it, they tend to be better looking anyway.
Every time I've had a really, really good time socially in the pasttwo years, drugs have probably been involved. But the best times,the funniest times, the stupidest, are with my best friend. We canput on this really cheesy fitness video from the Eighties and killourselves laughing. Last weekend we got drunk and stoned and shehad a bit of coke left - because sometimes we take it from men,pretend to snort it somewhere and then save it for when we'realone. We didn't go out in the end because it was raining and wewanted to prank call, which is mainly lying on cushions. Even ifthere's no one else, it's still a bit like a festival, being withher and taking stuff. We act out scenes in films - like Meet JoeBlack - or impersonate Sarah Silverman sitting in a chair. We runup and down the stairs with hats on singing 'Shitdisco' byShitdisco. We've probably never done ecstasy on a Sunday, ormushies [mushrooms]. We'd say Friday for that - because she'syounger than me, but does a straighter job.
George, 67, idealist and humorist, London
Drugs: cannabis
Spends: less than £140 a week
I became aware of drugs when I was about 16. I would hang aroundSoho and a woman told me about the uppers and downers that weregoing around. They didn't interest me at all. I was fit, anathlete. Pretty much teetotal, and I remain so. But then when I wasabout 24 and working in the diamond trade in Hatton Garden someonegave me some Thai grass to smoke and I enjoyed the experience. Eversince - 43 years - weed has been my recreational drug of choice.
In the Eighties I had cocaine, but it never did anything for me,and I dabbled with ecstasy and it's OK, but nothing I'd want tokeep doing. My abiding memory of LSD is just how dirty and dustyeverything seemed.
No, it's always been grass for me. But you can't get the stuff thatwas around in the past that would always make you see the funnyside of life. Once, I even put some expensive Thai sticks in a litoven to dry out and then completely forgot to take them out. I wassitting there with the windows closed, inhaling the wreckage.
It's the funny and philosophical side I'm after, and it tunes youin to music, of course. It's like a perpetual Hamlet advertisement,really. Unfortunately, the only weed you can regularly get today isskunk and it's quite heavy. But there's never been any question inmy mind that if all marijuana was legal we would be a far healthierand happier society. Smoking weed tunes me in to a part of myself Ilike being tuned in to.
There should be proper drug education in schools and kids could beallowed to dabble, maybe. Ultimately, I look to a future where weedisn't classed as a drug. The only thing that'll stop me smoking itis death.
William, 15, schoolboy, Swansea
Drugs: skunk or hash
Spends: up to £30 a week
It was mental my parents suggesting I should have some one-to-onedrugs counselling, because all they knew about was a few pillsmissing and my spliff - and my dad's been spliffing since before Iwas born. My mother drinks white wine and a night for her costs asmuch as I've spent for a week. It makes me sarcastic with them.I'll say things like, 'I'll see you in the queue.'
Mum and Dad are saying no to me going to two festivals now. Theother thing that didn't help was a party I was at was raided. Theyhad sniffer dogs and everyone was lined up and they made some girlscry and found an ounce thrown about the place. One thing my fathersaid is, 'Don't get a record, or when you get a car they'll pullyou over every Friday until you're a dying man.' It's good advice.
I don't think my parents have ever cared if I've had three Stellas.If I was out of it they'd be happy to think it was lager.
My mother thinks I'll be seen smoking by the neighbours. I saw aburglar when I was having a smoke at the window once. I saved nextdoor a fortune, probably. It's much easier in summer, moving about,because using the gazebo - the gazeblow, we call it - at the parkon this side of town is a bit of a joke. The council and thecommunity police walk in a circle at 15-minute intervals, so we'rein, out. No one really bothers us at the skate park in the evening.The adrenaline of skateboarding takes the edge off spliff. Butsummer's way better because there's loads of places to go.
It's never been a problem getting skunk in town. Or hash. It's nota problem when I can't get it. The time I was always wanting it wasback at the beginning, really. I was being bullied. It sort ofhelped me. I'd changed schools and there were two major seriouspsychos there. When I started taking some of the pills my parentshad - I don't even know what they were - they were OK, likeanti-depressing.
A bit trippy with drink. I don't do that now.
The thing is, I'm paying more for skunk from friends than I wouldfrom some dealers, because dealers will start offering you anythingelse they want to unload. You're saying, 'No, no, no. I only wantsome hash really.'
What I'd seriously like is to be online on MySpace, be onPlayStation 2, and have a smoke halfway through homework, with adressing gown across the bottom of the door and really knowing noone's going to be in the house for two hours. That and being on theramps where there's someone with smokes and jokes. And girls. Mypicture of paradise is a girl on the ramps - no lamer, she's alwaysbusting it out - who sort of gets she's sexy but doesn't. She hasAir Insurgents [trainers] and has the moves and has her own littlestash of hash. Everyone I hang around with wants the girl likethat.
Diana, 27, legal clerk, Essex
Drugs: heroin
Spends: £350 a week
Obviously I have to take my little packets to work prepared, so Idon't have drama in the toilet getting a razor blade out andmeasuring each time for a snort. I'll have had one at home, sothere's two packets for work. One's ready for lunch and anotherlater. It's usually two, or three. I need three if it's cut[adulterated]; ideally four - in case I'm working late, or I'm notcoming home after work.
I'll usually know in advance if it's heavily cut. If it's no goodthen I'll want to smoke it. I prefer smoking sometimes, but I can'tbe setting an alarm off. So I need to know the day's schedule. If acase comes forward or I'm at the office and there's bullshit aboutsomeone's dental appointment, or a personal injury case suddenlyreappears that someone's messed up, that's when I might get a bitangry. On Tuesday I thought I'd have to smoke on the office balconybecause I couldn't wait.
But it's really no big deal going to work with a habit, unlessothers are making it difficult. It's others causing the problems.I'd never have concerns at work if it was good stuff.
Sometimes if it's really weak, or my husband's found mine and takena bit from each packet while I'm asleep, that's when I think aboutthe needle, but I can't be carrying a kit. I can cook up in thetoilet some time, if I must, but I'm not doing the needle now -ever, really. Just sometimes in the evenings, when I have to,because of all the hassle.
This week I've had good stuff. Not really good, but not reallydodgy. When it's really good, the forehead pours, you knowstraightaway. Once, the paper towels and toilet paper ran out,because the cleaner wasn't there the night before, and I brushed myhand against the photocopier and it was dripping, and a clown said,'It must be very hot in the Ladies.' I didn't reply.
I take care of everything that's put in front of me. I'd probablyhave given up working in law if it wasn't for smack. When work'sboring it numbs the boredom. Everything's better on smack,everything. But I couldn't do more than a gram a day on what Iearn, and I'm eating at Subway. Whereas my bosses could afford twograms without noticing. They don't, I'm just saying. There's no oneelse on skag there, although there's loads in law.
There was a problem recently when my husband kept phoning theoffice. Two dealers disappeared last month and my husband thought Iwas hiding stuff at work. He hasn't phoned since. If he loses me ajob he knows I'll kill him. I work perfectly on smack. I'm notdrinking at lunch, like others in my office. When you've got heroinyou don't need alcohol. The only difference is you can't get it 24hours in Tesco. I know one lawyer who's been on smack for 18 years.One clerk I knew died last year, but that's because the stuff thatcame through was great after he'd been having stuff for weeks thatwas 15 per cent, you understand? He was a good worker, good withpapers like me.
After work yesterday I went somewhere to get some, because I wasthinking ahead to the weekend. But I didn't get any. I was just satwaiting in a room with these guys, watching The One Show. We werejust watching television for hours. One of them was a guy I knewfrom university who started getting angry because he said one of usate his KitKat. The dealer said he'd sort us by seven, then twohours... We were just waiting and waiting. I had a report with meand I read some of that.
Kevin, 48, grave digger, Hertfordshire
Drugs: cannabis, ecstasy, LSD
Spends: £20-30 a week
Grave digging is one of those jobs where it's easy to smoke on thejob, and common. It's a bit ironic because, when I got into drugs,a late-starter [at 21], I spent my first night coming down fromsulphate in a graveyard. I found blue bombers [sulphate]exhilarating and sociable. I'm introverted, but the sulphate mademe extroverted, confident. I was snorting it at art college, forart's sake and for the enjoyment of music and company and friends,and the high philosophy of it and the liberation. Sometimes I wasup for nights on end and had psychotic comedowns. Two weeks solidwas the most I ever did. I'll take a bit now, but only at partieswhich I really don't want to leave.
Acid's a touchy subject. My first time was one of the mostwonderful experiences of my life. Everything was so clear, sobright and so real. Although I've had LSD since - seven in a weekat music festivals - and it's never been quite the same for me, Idecided that first experience was how the world is, for real, andI've always kept the memory with me. I tell myself, 'When theworld's not looking and feeling like that, it's me not seeing it.'
I was cost-conscious about ecstasy in its early days - you couldget eight tabs of acid for the price of an E where I was, but Iended up on the rave scene in the late Eighties and taking Eregularly, dancing all night. The reason I don't take it much nowis because at my age it would be crippling to dance around incycling shorts and a hat with dog's ears going absolutely berserktoo much.
I think it was all the drinking that caused me to get a reallychronic nosebleed two months ago. I was taken off in an ambulance.A week in hospital. They told me to cut out everything - thedrinking, the blow, the puff, everything. And I've gloried in itall my life. After a month, I thought because it makes me sleep sowell - I like 10 hours - that I'll have spliffs, but with toytobacco. And I thought that I'll drink but I won't cane it, then acouple of lines of cocaine, up the best nostril. The funny thing isthat they've been talking at work about drug testing everyone. Thelast time they said that, it never happened. But it's looming,looming.
So before the weekend I was feeling healthier, from not caning it,yet thinking the world was turning against me. But on Saturday Iwent up a friend's house and we were going to have a little drinkin the garden and someone else came round and he had some MDMA andI ended up going next door and sleeping with my friend's neighbour.I haven't even taken a girl out in nine years and so it was quitean outrageous thing for me to do, a total transformation ofconfidence.
Carl, 37, shop owner, Bristol
Drugs: GHB, viagra, ecstasy, amyl nitrate, etc
Spends: less than £50 a week
The Virgin Atlantic ad on TV - it's very spacey and John Hannah'sin it - is like a commercial for the hallucinogenic side ofketamine, to me. There's drug imagery everywhere. You flick throughthe channels on TV and see lots of people who are obviously ondrugs - middle-aged presenters, politicians, the lot - who sniffwhen the camera's not on them. I've been told as a fact that drugsare allowed and encouraged on one of the reality shows. It's editedout.
I'm a gay man. And I have friends who think anti-drug is anti-gay,full stop. I feel it's certainly no business of anybody else whosomeone sleeps with or what they put in to their body. Obviously Ilike to think they're going to be sensible - hah - about it, avoidpeople spiking their drinks and going bareback [not using acondom], and looking after themselves and not necking anything andeverything. I want to remember what I've done. And obviously if abusiness depends on you functioning day in, day out - and you needto earn to be able to party, anyway - you're going to want to stayhealthy. Of course, sex keeps you fit and sex drugs contribute. ButI've got a form of cystitis and I've had sex once in the last week.If you were hoping for a story of cocktailing drugs night afternight and six-hour sex sessions, I can't oblige right now.
One thing I've usually done is give myself Monday off work. If I'mout on Friday, working Saturday, and then out again, this is theage when it starts to become a bit torturous. I haven't had meth[crystal meth] for weeks, and when I do it's only at weekends. Iwouldn't do Special K [ketamine] from Monday to Friday either andI'm usually only having Dorothys [small amounts]. I find somepeople in a k-hole insufferable. I love the way sounds and lightsbecome indistinguishable, blended, warped. But I don't go right tothe edge with it. I had cocaine, Viagra and poppers at the weekend.I had GHB, I think, the weekend before. I still like Adam [ecstasy]sometimes, although it's getting less popular here.
I'm more detached during the week. I'm not saying I won't go tospecial events and any opening if they're during the week, but I'musually not seeing people and being offered drugs during the week.My boyfriend is connected with a university, is away there, andanything he brings is at the weekend.
I've been gardening and decorating for several weeks and every timeI've taken something I've had the house in the back of my mind. Iwas given some amphetamines that I thought I could use, but Ihaven't. No hash. There's a satisfaction in grafting from 10am to 6and then eight in the evening to 11 or 12, and the exhaustion. SoSaturday night - if we've not clubbed on Friday - is the time Ineed something to take me out of that, to have the energy, the sexand the obliteration.
On Sunday and Monday I'm really only interested in cookery - I'mfabulous.
Mars, 22, unemployed, London
Drugs: crack cocaine
Spends: £100 a day
I don't sell bones - that's crack - or skunk or coke or speed. WhatI do is sell cooking herbs [passed off as drugs] to get money to goand buy bones for myself. I feel no guilt, none. If I don't ripthem off someone else will.
I've been in Camden this week. The CCTV helps me rip people off. Isay, 'Don't open it [the wrap], move... the camera is turning,go...' Or, 'Take my number,' because I can take them into a shop,get a pen and write numbers and then they're not looking in thewrap.
I'll also do Tesco Express, sit like a beggar man, but I can't dothe 12 pence, eight pence all day, or the 'How do I know you won'tspend this on drugs?' Everyone thinks you're on crack. But mygirlfriend - she does girl scams, like 'You can look at my arms,I'm clean. I need £20 for a room tonight.' I try that, butshe's got the looks. Not looks for lapping - lap dancing - but menhelp her.
The best time was when we got some money - she stole someone's coat- and we got tickets for a train to the coast and we weresuperstars, that's how we were feeling.
I've smoked in all places this week. In the phone box, when I wasrattling [desperate]. We have 20 places a mile from here. You cando McDonald's' toilets. And there's apartments. There's a roof nearhere and I get buzzed in. We both keep a glass flower tube there,hidden - she sawed it in half, one for her, one for me. Valentine'sDay!
On Wednesday I visited my mother and she gave me £30. I saidI'd go clean, but I went to a den near there. Now she's notanswering again. She doesn't get it. It's the best feel ever, arock [of crack]. I'm hot, I'm clever, I'm gliding. People can buy acar, go in that restaurant any time they want, but we can't buycrack without hassle. If you won the Lottery you could get crackfive, six times every day and no one would be sorry. No one's bagwould get lifted. I wouldn't have my cousin saying I shat up thewedding. I'd be kinder, no depression, if I had crack and thehousing association hadn't screwed my girlfriend over.
I feel shit. I want £40.
Mark, party organiser, London
Drugs: 'everything short of injecting'
Spends: £50 a week on opium, £30 a week on cannabis
As a party organiser, I recognise that people like to go out atnight and have a good time and that they often take drugs to helpthem have a good time - and there's nothing more or less to it thanthat. And obviously I want to enjoy myself, but I can't get out ofcontrol while I'm organising a party for a perfume company or acaviar restaurant. When I'm DJing it works better, I play betterwhen I've had ecstasy or I'm drunk and stoned, but I don't go sofar that I can't physically operate the controls. It's when I havelittle parties to celebrate the success of big parties that I tendto let loose, perhaps taking three or four people away to Paris(women, preferably) and having a splendid old time.
I've recently become attracted to opium. I find it wonderful,fantastic, lovely, yet one feels instantly that it's incrediblyaddictive for some people - the sirens ring, it's so seductive. Ifit was possible to get in London I'd smoke more. Last week I got atext saying some would be available at the weekend, but sadly itwasn't.
I really don't want to give the impression that drugs are a hugepart of my life, as I've never been on anything for more than a fewdays in a row. But since I was 18, I've tried pretty mucheverything, short of injecting.
The only thing I've had so far today is weed. Not skunk, which myfriend [dealer] doesn't sell, and I think is debilitating. I'mtalking about good old-fashioned weed. I particularly like a joint- a small one - first thing in the morning with a strong coffee. Ashower, when you're a little stoned, can be the most wonderfulthing in the world. And then, walking outside, everything is morelovely and beautiful and it can almost brand a smile on to my facefor the rest of the day. Smoking good weed and drinking doubleespressos, that's a really lovely thing for me; they work togetherwonderfully, whether I'm sitting watching pretty girls outside acafe or working on projects into the night, when they give me theenergy to work but without the jitters that would then stop mesleeping. They cancel out the bad points of each other andaccentuate the good points, calming me down enough so I canconcentrate on work and yet setting off the mind so it's free,fancy, flighty.
But the thing I'm really looking forward to is mushroom picking.Mushrooms are my favourite drug because they bring the rush, theopen and clear mind, the laughter and the energy. And they'rechemical-free. Whereas acid takes the world out and puts it in atumble dryer, mushrooms are more like a natural progression -taking the world and stretching it.
· Some of the interviewees' names have been changed
UK adult drug taking in 2007
3.7 million adults used illicit drugs last year - 1.8m aged under 24 years old
2.8 million used cannabis - 1.5m under 24
1.2 million took a class A drug last year - 560,000 under 24
900,000 used cocaine powder - 425,000 under 24
625,000 used ecstasy - 310,000 under 24
500,000 used amyl nitrate (poppers)
476,000 used amphetamines
154,000 used tranquillisers
87,000 used LSD
69,000 used glues
65,000 used crack cocaine
46,000 used heroin
41,000 used methadone
· Sources: British Crime Survey (Home Office), Scottish Crime andVictimisation Survey (The Scottish Government), Northern IrelandDrug Prevalence Survey (National Advisory Committee on Drugs)