People who tempt me to take drugs.

There is a particular type of person that makes me want to smoke, but they don't work for Philip Morris or BAT. They're the people behind No Smoking Day and health warnings on fag packets with "shocking" pictures* and a constant stream of sanctimonious, finger wagging TV ads from the fucking state government. (It's particularly annoying when you're trying to stop smoking and the fuckers keep reminding you of cigarettes all the time.) There's also a type of person that makes me want to go to the bottle shop and buy a ridiculous quantity of alcohol and spend a week constantly shitfaced, but they don't work for a brewery or a vineyard. They're the people behind equally sanctimonious, finger wagging, government ads with a boozy theme, and are responsible for things like health warnings on alcohol ads ("enjoy alcohol responsibly" is a disclaimer I've noticed on a few ads here).

Well it follows that people like David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance make me want to go out and score a lot of drugs and see if I can achieve orbit. Not because I really want to, because I've actually got zero interest in drugs and getting off my dial. I rarely even get drunk and go long periods of time without alcohol, so avoiding drugs and politely refusing any I'm offered is a piece of piss. But when some nannying gobshite comes along the hectoring and lecturing is just so fucking annoying I invariably want to do whatever it is they don't want me to do. In this case it's E, and David Raynes has got his cock in a knot because Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Home Office’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, has said it's no more dangerous than horse riding.

He writes: “The point was to get people to understand that drug harm can be equal to harms in other parts of life. There is not much difference between horse rising and ecstasy.”

To which David Raynes replies:

“He is entitled to his personal opinion, but if his personal view conflicts so very strongly with his public duties, it would be honourable to consider his position.

“If he does not, the Home Secretary should do it for him.”

No wonder the National Drug Prevention Alliance is failing to prevent much drug use. Raynes must be stupid or even on drugs to have missed the point - it's not that Ecstasy is perfectly fine and safe, but that quite legal activities are just as dangerous. How the fuck can anyone miss that? Or is he just another tedious little twat who secretly looks forward to this sort of thing so he can get his name and his agenda in the media? And the vindictive nature makes my blood boil. Does he debate the point? Does he use a counter argument to refute Professor Nutt's comments? Nope, he avoids it altogether and virtually demands that Professor Nutt is sacked for not being on message with the anti-drug crowd. Self important little prick. No wonder there's a fucking drug problem with people like him around. Even I feel like getting high to escape the bastards for a while.**



*Apparently the quit smoking helplines get really annoyed with people who ring up and ask for free fags because they've collected the whole set having swapped their spare Emphysema pack for that hard-to-find packet with the Heart Disease photos. Miserable bastards. I've been a few days without smoking and I've become an evil tempered bastard, but I've not ahd a fucking humour bypass.

**Not that I actually will of course, even if I had the first clue where to go and get some.