Forum Comments

Hi Mangone, We all seem to be going around in the same circles like dogs chasing our tails. I know you're not taking this topic too seriously but is that because you don't have addictive tendencies yourself and therefore lack true insight in the matter or perhaps you have gone through a form of addiction and managed to nip it in the bud? Maybe you're a social user or maybe you saw through the whole drug/drink mirage early and chose wisely to leave it alone. Whichever it is, and I'd love to have been a social user (I was at the beginning, and how!), this subject is very close to my heart and seems to be on my list of things to work out during life. I agree medicinally drugs can be used to incomparable effect. All these drugs were put on the planet for good, not evil. The problem is, Man has lost his sense of direction and purpose of late (let's ssy since the industrial revolution) and in doing so has become a victim of his own inventive success. Coke, which is especially good for dentists, is on the market as crack and the ways they import it are horrific (infants are killed in the Caribbean, their bodies are filled with coke and they are quickly taken on a flight to good old blighty with an adult, and ripped open at the other end). Skunk can have rockwool in it and is sometimes pissed on to make up the required weight, snide tobacco has asbestos in it and heroin sprinklings of anthrax. Dealers and, it seems, governments don't really give two hoots so long as it doesn't hit their own. In terms of us imbibing drugs, I'm sure this wasn't intended, although acid and mushrooms would be taken by authoratitive elders to decide matters of morality (in a decently run world). Perhaps Lord Taylor would disagree. I think he'd just have a bad trip (acid has a very bad effect on the morally corrupt). Although tobacco has formaldehyde and other beauties in it, I'd agree that cannabis is more carcinogenic. Providing people with unrestricted amounts of hard drugs would be like introducing free for all euthanasia to teenagers. In this morally bankrupt world, dealers would have a field day. As for alcohol, it's a depressant and there are no redeeming qualities. I tried for many years to counter depression and an unsettling form of self-consciousness with alcohol, but two negatives don't always equal a positive. It's OK for social drinkers, though it does no good really. It just softens the mind for the sake of an otherwise difficult compliance. The trick in life is to live it on life's terms. I think, if I may be so bold, that to couple milk and cannabis is way off the mark. Milk is the natural gift of protein from mother to child whereas cannabis is the paid-for poison from dealer to adult. It does lead to harder drugs, assuming the user is desperate enough. The most irritating thing about the debate on drugs and drink is that everyone uses their own experience as the guiding factor in their argument, which is natural enough. The problem stems from this subjective look, which seems to stifle reasoned debate. If person A has no need for drugs and uses drink socially, he cannot see the glaring reality that person B is a mere slave to drugs. A thinks that B is capable of stopping and so has little time for him. If person C is a heavy drinker doing his health no good but functioning, he will gauge his own addiction against the typical alcoholic, person D, and frown on him, protecting his own addiction till his own early death. If person E has been through childhood trauma and managed to live a decent life without turning to drugs, he will look at person F, who has suffered also as a child but found himself in the trap of drug/drink abuse, as a wimp who gave in too easily. The list goes on, because there are many different tribes of addiction, each justifying their own habits by the behaviour of others caught in the spectrum of addictions. Because society is so messed up, deflection now uses cleaning, shopping, food, almost anything, and addicts are multiplying as time goes by. This is a far bigger and more imporatnt topic that people imagine. Perhaps alot of people see that, but find it even more confusing than politics, so turn a blind eye (making them very susceptible to a spot of low-level addiction!) Who knows where it will take us, but I reckon that unless we become more flexible and forgiving of one another, the only way is down.

thanks for reading,Simon. I identify with your thoughts. I'm starting to think that peace of mind is the best tonic to write with. Everything finds its place naturally. All the best, Richard

thanks' ashb. Glad you enjoyed it.

I get that feeling that I won't be able to write well any more, too, John. In fact, I got it while I was reading some poetry at the last Abc evening. I suddenly thought that what I was reading was total shit and sped through it to finish. Afterwards, I questioned my talent in a waay that I'd never done before and came to the conclusion that writing's 95% hard work and 5% talent, especially after listening to an extract of Laura Wilkinson's 'Bloodmining' at the evening. To her writing, I could hear form, structure and meaning that made it sound effortless, and for the first time I realised that I was a lazy sod whose opinion of his own talent was vastly over-rated. When I was 25, the Evening Standard bought three 1000-word stories from me, but while they were grooming me for a big and bright future, I was busy drugging and drinking the money they gave me. When I went for a meeting with Nick Foulkes, he saw right through me and I was dropped like a wet handkerchief. This had a profound effect on me. I gave up copywriting and moved to Paris, 'to write like Orwell', but again all I did was set up raves and drug it up with the glitterati, all the time announcing myself as a writer when the only time i wrote was when I was in a hotel or away from the scene. I've used up alot of braincells and misused the gift of writing my thoughts. At the other end of the scale, you work through blocks by gritting your teeth and writing anyway. I applaud your strength of mind and can imagine that sooner or later you will break through to a higher plain and write as you always intended. For me, since the last Abc evening, I think I've finally accepted that I'm not a writing guru and while there's no point in regretting the past, my career may now be limited to smaller, less ambitious work, ie. poetry, children's books, shorts. Writing a novel is beyond me now but I can do just as much and give as much meaning with what I intend to do now. All the best Richard

thanks Insert, I've got the bit between my teeth now. Hope you're well. Beautiful weather. Richard