Pubdate: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Leo Benedictus COCAINE, ANYONE? Is There Anything Wrong With Recreational Drugs? the New Head Of Scotland Yard Says There Is. But, Says Leo Benedictus, the Rise of The Middle Class User Will Be Difficult to Stop Rarely is the appointment of a new Metropolitan police commissioner so interesting. On his first day as Britain's most powerful policeman, Sir Ian Blair decided to let the nation in on a little secret: "People are having dinner parties where they drink less wine and snort more cocaine," he said. (How he knows this he didn't explain.) "I'm not interested in what harm it is doing to them personally," he continued, "but the price of that cocaine is misery on the streets of London's estates and blood on the roads to Colombia and Afghanistan." In other words: boycott cocaine. Just say "no thanks". Skip the charlie like you would pass the cheeseboard. A hundred years ago, cocaine was not a moral issue. Ernest Shackleton was propelled on his Antarctic adventures by Forced March, a product largely composed of cocaine, and we now know that Queen Victoria could have given Jimi Hendrix a run for his money. It was only during the first world war that the drug began to be imagined as a social problem. In fact, the legislation that first made possession of cocaine or opium illegal in this country was an ad hoc wartime gesture to prevent soldiers on leave in the West End from having too much to distract them. With its reputation and its legal status confirmed, the idea of cocaine itself as a morally degenerative substance took hold. The Catholic church even weighed in, pronouncing in the catechism that the use of drugs "except on strictly therapeutic grounds" is "a grave offence". Ninety years later, now that powder cocaine has become more widely used, the argument that it leads inevitably to ruin has become difficult to maintain. "It is wrong-headed for a government to tell the entire population that they cannot be trusted to drink after 11pm," said the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, in the Commons last week, speaking of another piece of outdated wartime legislation. Until Blair's remarks on Tuesday, there seemed to be just one argument left: because cocaine is potentially addictive and can be harmful, even the most sensible members of society - those who go to dinner parties, indeed - cannot be trusted to use it. The problem, again, is that drug users know better. And even non-drug users, especially those who have to deal with the drug laws' consequences, may question the sense in devoting vast resources to catching and punishing people for having a joint or a line. Might being caught not do more harm to a user than the drug he or she was taking? Here's a certain Sir Ian Blair in a letter to the Times from January 2004, expressing his support for the reclassification of cannabis: "During the 30 years of my police service, the policing of possession of small amounts of cannabis has become increasingly pointless. It was grossly inefficient for officers to spend hours processing individuals for the possession of cannabis in amounts about which neither the courts nor therefore the CPS were prepared to take any action." Now, with cannabis so widely tolerated that the government has been forced to place advertisements reminding us all that it's not legal, the focus has switched to cocaine - and with good reason. Despite its price, cocaine is now the second most popular illegal drug in Britain, with the Office for National Statistics estimating that 475,000 people in the UK use it. And the number of users has nearly tripled since 1997, according to the Independent Drugs Monitoring Unit. These people cannot all be destroying their lives, so by saying, "I'm not interested in what harm it is doing to them personally," Blair seems, for the first time, to be withdrawing the "save them from themselves" argument. A sensible decision. Most tellingly of all, though, the price of a gram - from which you'd get about a dozen lines - is now around UKP40 in London, down from about UKP60 a decade ago, when a number of Colombian cartels are said to have first moved their attention away from the saturated US market to concentrate on Europe. "What chance do we have of keeping drugs out of Britain," Billy Connolly once asked, "if we can't keep them out of prisons?" Cocaine's success - and thus society's increasingly relaxed attitude to it - should come as no surprise. From a business perspective, it is by far the most attractive drug to deal in. As a concentrated white powder, it is much easier to smuggle than bulky, smelly goods such as cannabis. It is also easy to adulterate with another neutral substance, which means retailers can double their profits at a stroke. It is an effective product, too, that produces a number of pleasurable effects in the short term, such as self-confidence, sexual arousal and chattiness. The drug also, frankly, enjoys a strong prestige positioning, thanks to decades of countless, usually inadvertent, celebrity endorsements. As a result, people are prepared to pay more for it than for any other drug. And, as if all this wasn't enough, it can always be purified into crack with bicarbonate of soda and sold in to the less affluent, but unfailingly loyal, junkie market. What Blair seems to have realised is that this country's coke problem - - if it is a problem - is economic. Suppliers have found that they can sell cocaine for huge profits without getting caught, and consumers have responded with a steady increase in demand for a product they evidently feel free to enjoy, whether or not it is wise to do so. The only argument left is an appeal to the consumer. And don't middle-class people at dinner parties, people who buy Fairtrade coffee and drink organic wine, just love to be ethical? It may be a clever idea, but it is based on a myth. Where are all these cocaine dinner parties he talks about? The passing round of the silver tray to appreciative noises - "It's Peruvian flake. I bought it in an alleyway behind Borough Market" - is a fantasy. And if the powers that be feel so strongly about unethical business practices, why are battery chickens still legal? How about a lecture on where our chocolate comes from? This is, at last, the first intelligent excuse since the war on drugs started. But soon it will be time to consider an exit strategy. The line on cocaine 'So rife it's boring' Sarah, 31, writer I don't use cocaine any more, as I became an addict in my mid-20s. But I still know lots of middle-class people who use it and think it's not dangerous. I think they are in denial. My cocaine use was entirely a social thing at the beginning. I would use it with friends from college or people I met. We would all disappear to the loo together in a bar to do a line, or people would come to my house and we'd take it. I would go out and buy five or six grams, which at the time cost about UKP300, and invite my mates to come and get it. It was all terribly middle-class; we thought we were doing something hip, decadent, pseudo-60s. Certainly nobody was watching the money. Janine, 30, mental health worker In certain circles of friends it's so rife that it's got boring. Some parties you just know people will be huddled in the loos or snorting off mirrors in bedrooms. I dabble, but have only taken it twice in the past 18 months. I don't think, in general, users think about the broader implications of cocaine use; neither did I until I read an article describing a dinner party where the entire menu was organic and for dessert they served coke, which probably involved people shooting each other somewhere along the production process. I've not actually bought it since. Part of what makes it attractive is the fact that it's illegal and you have to do it in the loos. But the law needs to be clarified because coke has become so accessible that people forget it's class A. To me it's as common as spliff. Despite all this, I agree with Ian Blair. I'm sick and tired of feeling unsafe walking down my street. I'd rather get drugs off the streets. Martin, 37, cartoonist I think I see less of it around now than I did a few years ago, but that's probably because of my age. But I know people who will always have some on them on a Friday night, and if I'm with them I may have a line or two, but I hardly ever buy it. These people can just call someone and it will be there in half an hour or so. It's like a courier service. It could happen at a dinner party, but not necessarily - sometimes it's just round at someone's house, with a few drinks. And sometimes in the pub, and we'll just go into the loo to do it, maybe before going on somewhere. Do I ever worry about where it comes from? Well, yes, more so now than I used to. You don't know what you're putting into your body. Oh, I see, worry about what's happened to get it to me, wars and things? Oh, God no. It's that old thing of whether you'd be prepared to kill a chicken to eat it. I wouldn't, but I still eat chicken. Cheryl, 41, a manager Ian Blair's comments are so draconian. I imagine those comments will have lost him a lot of support from a lot of middle-class recreational drug users, and at the end of the day we're a powerful group of people. I would rather not fund organised crime to buy my cocaine, and I'm not proud of going to find it that way. I know people have been killed and threatened along the way to get illegal drugs on to the streets and that's why it's so important to start looking at alternatives to keeping drugs illegal and alternatives to clamping down on those who use them. Jimmy, 28, lobbyist In my experience, if there are eight people sitting around a table and someone pulls out a gram of coke, six people will have a bit. Within that you've got different grades: some people will look forward to it; others feign surprise. It always seems to be the same person who makes the trip to the pub, or on to the estate to meet the dealer. I used to be that man and I found it kind of intimidating. If you don't actually buy the stuff you don't really acknowledge the downside. As for the fact that there are private armies carving up South America to provide this stuff, forget about it. Bryony, 30, senior civil servant I've been taking coke for 15 years and I must admit I've never really thought about where it came from and where my money's going to end up. Thinking about it now, I can see there are pushers making money, but then lots of people are doing it. You can't stop it. I don't feel like I'm personally harming anyone by taking coke. Although I'll probably consider the implications more now that the issue has been raised. I fear getting caught now I have a responsible, grown-up job. Even though lots of middle-class people are doing it, I think being caught would have a huge impact on my career. My fear is more about my reputation than breaking the law. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFLorida)