Cocaine and Cannabis

It’s Saturday and no doubt thousands of people will be using ‘Charley’ (Cocaine to you and me) up and down the country tonight. Here’s what Dr Chris Baker, cardiology unit at Hammersmith Hospital, London says about ‘Coke’:

“Cocaine is a powerful stimulant with effects similar to adrenaline. It reduces the re-uptake of noradrenaline and dopamine at nerve endings, increasing blood pressure, making your heart beat faster and more forcefully, and increasing the heart’s oxygen demand. It can also make coronary arteries to spasm, reducing or stopping the heart’s blood supply, and makes the blood more sticky and likely to form clots. All of those things can cause chest pain or a heart attack.”

Not very glamorous. If people are going to use the stuff they should at least be informed about it. Having a damaged nose (like former Eastenders star Daniella Westbrook) could be the least of your worries.

On Thursday, 6^th December 2007 a top Irish model, Katy French, died in hospital. She was 24 years old. In the weekend before her death, Ms French had attended a house party where she became ill. In a Hot Press interview the model had admitted using Cocaine in her past: “Cocaine is everywhere but I just wanted to say that it’s not cool, it’s not attractive…”

It’s generally known that the drug in question is widely used among socialites in Dublin. Cocaine is highly addictive and can suppress one’s appetite – something of great concern to many young women these days. Furthermore ‘the Devil’s dandruff’ is illegal in nearly every part of the world where it is used in many social, cultural and personal settings.

In the Observer newspaper, recently, there was a supplement on drugs where several politicians were featured. They openly admitted using Cannabis. The drug’s classification is regularly reviewed by the British government and, according to an Observer survey, 32 per cent of all respondents believe the drugs laws, in the UK, are too liberal.

Drug use has become widespread and indeed you are looked upon as rather an oddball if you haven’t touched the stuff (ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine). However, as the Observer supplement says: ‘if any politician was exposed as a chronic junkie, his or her career would be over immediately’. So MP’s must be disciplined in their use but in the fields of arts and entertainment it is quite acceptable to partake in illegal substances. Although too many, in the latter occupation, have died in the pursuit of mind-altering drugs.

In Ireland there has been an upsurge in Head Shops and they are portrayed, by the owners, as being clean and safe places to try out what amounts to illegal drugs. In the media, if there is any discussion at all, it seems that Hot Press magazine has kick-started debate. Many of the writers at HP have either chosen to voice quiet support themselves or have interviewed people who have a pro-drugs view.

Let me be clear, by no means am I saying that all those who write at the famous Irish lifestyle mag are in favour of breaking the law. However they do seem to have, along with others in the media, an interest in bringing the views of users and dealers to readers’ attention on a regular basis. But in its favour the honesty displayed by Hot Press is admirable if nothing else. They have set the bar high and no other publication better informs the reader on the drugs issues in Ireland.

I know someone who has regularly taken cocaine and that person has told me that no-one ever speaks about why people take it. Could it be that it’s enjoyable? Why do most people drink alcohol, eat chocolate, smoke legal cigarettes, and sip coffee/tea? Surely the main reason for imbibing such substances is enjoyment.

However the enjoyment of taking drugs needs to be balanced against the dangers that can accrue from regular use. Not to mention the very real possibility of premature death. In Irish life, from Phil Lynott to Katy French, drugs have and will always be around. For the coming generations there will still be narcotics available and it is our duty to tell them the truth: not the Hot Press cheerleaders but also not the government nannies. There needs to be better ways of informing young people without alienating them. After that let them experience life on their own terms. We owe them the truth. It would be a serious injustice if we failed in that regard.