Soapbox |
Neil McKeganey
Soapbox
DDN’s monthly column
offering a platform for
a range of diverse views.
22 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| May 2012
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
CHALLENGING
THE HIGH PRIESTS
Amajor culture shi
is needed to
ch nge he u ivers l reli ion o dru
akin , say N l Mc egan y
A cording to a recently released sur ey, drug use has become
irtually endemic within the UK n ghtclub scene.
Global Drug Survey,
an independent research group, has just reported the results of its largest ever
survey of 7,700 UK clubbers. Carried out conjunction with
Mixmag
magazine and
the
Guardian
Newspaper, 75 per cent of those questioned had used ecstasy in the
last year, 64 per cent had used cannabis, 62 per cent had used cocaine, 51 per
cent had used the former legal high mephedrone and 41 per cent had used the
veterinary tranquiliser ketamine. Worryingly, 15 per cent said that they had taken
a white powder without even knowing what it was.
If anybody thought that drug use is the preserve of the poor, the results of the
Mixmag
survey tell a different story, with nearly a third of those questioned
earning in excess of £30,000 a year. Drug use, it seems, is alive and not so well in
the UK club scene, with 86 per cent of those questioned saying that in their view
drugs made a good night even better. In the
Mixmag
survey 45 per cent of
clubbers had bought their drugs on the internet. These are people with a deep
interest in pharmacology and the capacity to pay for the products put before them.
In the 1980s illegal drug use typically centred around four drugs – cannabis,
LSD, heroin and cocaine. The list of drugs now being consumed is bewildering in
its length and variety. Between 1997 and 2010 there were 150 new drugs
identified by the European Union’s d ug abuse monitoring centre in Lisbon. In
2010 there were 41 new legal h gh drugs identified by the monitoring centre (see
news story, page 4). Gover ments across the world are struggling to keep up with
the ingenuity of che
ists developing these substances and the speed of the
internet in takin the products into a global market.
The find ng that a significant number of young people had consumed a drug
witho t fully knowing what it was reveals a fundamental change in their attitudes
t drug use. Whereas in the past many people confined their drug use to one or two
substances, what we are now seeing is not so much a culture of poly drug use but a
staggering willingness to consume substances whatever the drugs involved.
The lack of interest as to what is actually in the drugs that are now being sold is
a feature of their marketing. With names such as ivory wave, meow meow, white
magic, sparkle and spice, that convey nothing of what the drugs contain, what i
being sold here is a lifestyle uplift to the mundanity of everyday living.
The survey shows there is a clear need for club owners and the po ice to reflect
on their respective approaches. It is probably the case that the p lice have less
penetration into the world of the clubs than they need to, ut there is also a major
responsibility that needs to sit at the feet of club own rs and managers. The results
of this survey do not show that the drug use wa necessarily occurring within the
clubs themselves – however the link with c ubbing is clear cut and unarguable, and
there is now a case for club owners to consider using the technology of drug testing
to refuse entry to those who are sing drugs. The goal of a drug-free club should
also become an important art of the licensing system.
The findings of thi survey are also a wake-up call to those working in the field
of drug prevention. For years this has involv d informing young people of the risks
of the drugs they may be offered, and hich they may be tempted on occasion to
take. The findings of this survey s ggest that such words of caution have not only
fallen on deaf ears, but hav been overtaken by a generation that has integrated
drug taking into the v ry heart of its leisure activities.
At the mome t drug taking is the perfect activity in a culture that as elevated
the realisati n of personal wants and desires above all else. For a long as our
culture gives such absolute priority to the notion of doing hat one wants,
w atever the consequences, it is all but impossible to magine a time when the
level of drug use within the club scene and else here will be substantially reduced.
As we face a future of increasing financ l difficulty it may be that we will see a
cultural shift in which less and less e phasis is placed on the importance of
meeting the needs of the individ al and greater importance is given to helping
others to realis their goals. In the face o such a shift, drug use m y come to be
seen as a anachronistic hangover f a past cult of individual sm. Equally though,
in th face of a bleak economi future, we may seek mor and more ways of
blocking out the reality o a world where the chem sts have become the high
priests of a new uni ersal religion.
Neil McKeg ney is director of the Centr for Drug Misuse Research Glasgow