A
n anonymous student argues against the Government and society's attitudes towards alcohol and other, less legal substances.
would be surprised to find someone who hasn’t noticed the increase in anti-drug propaganda in the UK’s libellous tabloids; unfortunately many of those who have come across these articles take them as gospel, resulting in a new wave of ignorance. The Mail’s article on cocaine in our drinking water sparked a lot of attention in early May; of course it was quickly followed by a number of more sane news platforms debunking their fallacy. A few months before that Gemma Moss was recorded as the first woman to “DIE” of cannabis toxicity in the UK. Thankfully much of the public responded with snorts of disbelief dismissing the article as an attempt to stop Washington’s example spreading to the UK. Ostensibly, the UK’s attitude towards drugs is unclear and uninformed at best.
There’s no fear when you’re having fun!
Strangely, even in this breeding ground of ideas that is University the attitude is much the same. Alcohol is fun for a while but when young drunks fall into the river we mourn their loss and prompt discussions about river safety, proposals spawn about building barricades to stop this from happening. A Jack Kerouac quote playfully demonstrates my point: “When you start separating people from their rivers, what do you get? Bureaucracy!” leading to the issue disappearing into some dark, dusty crevice in the council archives, leaving us students banned from drinking within city walls. And now the problem is forgotten, but the abuse of alcohol has clearly never stopped being an issue. This is obvious enough to anyone standing outside Tokyo (or any other club) on a night out, having to dodge splash-back from the unresponsive mounds who, in the morning, will be cursing the name “alcohol” only to find themselves in a similar condition a few days later.
