Not much glamour in the average drug user's high' life

Keith Richards wasn't a typical Joe Bloggs user.PHOTO/FILE A-NZPA8686

It has been interesting to follow the debate over the sale of legal highs in the town. I can understand the concern about the sale of so-called "herbal highs" (they are actually synthesised substances) and the possible effects on health for users but this is but one part of a bigger picture.

Agreement seems almost universal that the "War on Drugs" has been lost.

This was bound to happen for various reasons. The profits are attractive to those with no scruples. Addiction is a force to be reckoned with - it has a fierce grip that requires vast amounts of effort to reach escape velocity and become free of its destructive power.

And there are people who feel the need for drugs to alter their mood. For some, it is a form of self-medication to anaesthetise themselves to the hurts life has inflicted; for others it is regarded as an essential social lubricate (like alcohol) that allows them to have what they think of as a good time.

The supply of illicit substances is constantly changing and adapting to meet these demands. All the talk of banning things boosts the market because there is money to be made.

The so-called herbal highs are a classic example. These products are continuously morphing and changing their chemical composition to keep a few steps ahead of the law, and the user has no way of knowing what is actually in these drugs and what effect it may have on their brain.

The New Zealand Government has decided to take a step away from the war on drugs approach and called a truce on this one particular category of substances. This has taken the form of a process that challenges the manufacturers and retailers of herbal highs to prove their products are safe before they can enter the legal market place. This will hopefully reduce the underground demand, where there is no regulation or knowledge of what is in them and any consequent side effects.

This is a bold move and many countries are watching New Zealand to see how this strategy will work as they also grapple with this relatively new product in the global drug trade.

I can understand why, at a local level, people are unhappy with this experiment in controlling risk with the moral implications of profit from dealing in mind-altering substances. Perhaps we will see similar local-level protests outside any liquor outlets or bars that have been the source of alcohol-fuelled violence?

As long as people feel the need to get out of it or trashed as an essential ingredient of having a "good time" the problems associated with substance abuse will remain. Personally, I cannot comprehend why a person would go to a gig or party, get off their face and then claim to have had a good time but actually remember little of what happened.

As a musician who has also worked in the alcohol and drug field, it is easy to pick examples of famous talented people who have been heavy drug users.

Keith Richards is perhaps a prime specimen, but stories such as his can be misleading. Most people cannot afford to pay someone to score for them or has the substantial monetary resources required to maintain a long-term, costly, drug addiction with legions of lawyers providing protection from the consequences.

For your average Joe Bloggs, the reality of addiction is wrecked relationships, poverty and ruined health - all of which lack any hint of glamour.

Terry Sarten is a social worker, musician and writer. Feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz or www.telsarten.com