Pubdate: Wed, 07 Feb 2001
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 Southam Inc.
Contact:  300 - 1450 Don Mills Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3R5
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Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
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Author: Mitchel Raphael

ROCK'S TAKE ON DRUGS

Wow, like, man -- it's like, Jungian synchronicity! Two British music mags, 
both dated February, and they're both devoted to drugs! MixMag flashes "The 
Drugs Issue" on a silver cover (a possible homage to the cocaine mirror), 
and another prominent British music mag, Q, shouts: "On Drugs: The greatest 
drug albums ever made/the sickest drug stories ever told."

Q's package includes the five best cocaine albums (David Bowie's Station to 
Station leads the pack) and five best acid albums, ranging from the 
Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 to the 1997 
compilation Deep Trance and Ritual Beats.

Also in the issue, music and illicit substance expert Harry Shapiro tries 
to explain "why Axl Rose takes drugs so we don't have to." A few pages over 
is a feature on how LSD "was supposed to change the world. Instead it gave 
us the three-hour guitar solo."

While Q's special issue focuses on drugs from a historical perspective, 
MixMag takes an empirical approach to substance abuse: Its second drug 
survey reveals bad habits getting worse from its last oh-so-scientific 
data-gathering session.

This year, the average clubber takes 3.7 tablets of Ecstasy in a session; 
in 1999 it was 2.82. Out of all respondents, 67.5% took their first E 
before reaching the age of 20. When asked, "Why do you take E?" 34.8% said 
"to feel high and euphoric" and 8.6% said "to help you dance." Revelations, 
to be sure.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D