I agree, your article was apt and necessary. My own opinion is similar. Having read most of the responses, I smiled at the venom and spite from many of the pro-drugs comments which mention some aspects of the article while ignoring parts they dislike or can't complain about e.g. that alcohol is legal and drugs are not; that you accept many of the arguments for legalising drugs; that drug trading is a nasty/criminal activity, often with dire consequences. The giggling media, who glamorise user habits with a snigger when mentioning their 'naughtiness' I feel free to sneer at and can avoid. I would prefer to legalise recreational drugs, to easily identify users, and move all drug & alcohol related hospital admissions to mental health units away from the public in A & E, OR actually police it - how many coy remarks are made on radio/ TV/in print which imply usage - if each comment resulted in a police raid on the home of the speaker - maybe we would get less giggling.

Anna Marie, Chesterfield, UK

Well done. Well done for the article about drug use. It is about time that someone said something along those lines.

Kathleen Baldock, Devon,

Well done, Thank goodness for this article, Ms Purves I take my hat off to you. It's high time the issue was put into proper perspective.

p race, pulborough, west sussex

but the truth of the matter is that you are harming other people on the planet via the drugs route, not to mention the fact that its distribution funds crime. It's all very well saying that it should therefore be legalised but then it would be much more widely used and many more thousands would die as a result. Cannabis while having a reduced danger than higher class drugs still in many cases leads the user to the harder drugs. Also if any parents who are reading this are on drugs, i beg you to please stop, think about your responsibilites as parents to protect and nurture your children, one of my friends parents regularly take cannabis and their son has recently died of a heroin overdose, think, theres always a much better way to deal with your problems.

David, Bristol, UK

I work in TV, and I never take drugs and don't approve of them - and I tell this to the young people who work with me. I knew Mark well, and as other writers have said, he wasn't killed by drugs: he killed himself because of his grief. Please can the Telegraph readers on here show a bit of compassion and imagine how they'd feel if it was their son or daughter. Because it could be - it can happen to anyone. It is sad, it is wrong, it is awful, but it is not a reason to make vindictive and un-Christian comments about two fundamentally decent, but flawed people.

Abi Farmer, London, UK

I do so agree with Libby Purves (I nearly always do!) as I lost my 27 year-old son to Heroin in 1999. He had been on drugs - starting with cannabis - since the age of about 15.

Hilary Falkner, Devon

Hilary Falkner, South Molton, Devon

be strong

jasmine, hudson, michigan u.s

NO ONE has the right to say that someone threw their life away. Especially when it's someone you know NOTHING about. And to say that it's an insult to people with naturally occurring mental illness is both ridiculous and unfair. Sorry but life isn't that simple. If it was, we'd all have found the answer by now. Bill Hicks has been mentioned here already but he was spot on when he said "What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, or take into my body as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?"

Oh and all of you who say alcohol isn't comparable, what about the deaths caused by drunk drivers? Death by misadventure is one thing. Dying because the driver in front "only had a couple of drinks" is entirely another.

Ken, Nottingham, UK,

Several people in this thread have condemned drugs because of the violence the illegal trade causes. That is because the trade is illegal - prohibition itself causes many of the problems we see with illegal drugs.

Illegal drugs are not controlled drugs, simple as that. The first step in doing anything about this problem is to get control over the trade, impossible whilst it's illegal.

Next stop advertising drugs - especially alcohol.

And please, stop saying "drugs and alcohol" as if you're discussing two different concepts, there are only drugs and booze is one.

Derek Williams, Norwich, Norfolk

Damn the cocaine.
Damn the alcohol.
Damn the caffeine.
Damn the paracetamol.

Damn the generalising idiots. Damn those that blame problems on substances rather than those that abuse them.

bob, london,

Libby makes some good points, although I do think it odd to separate alcohol from other drugs. One of the major problems with alcohol and cannabis is when people use them extremely regularly. If a person was having a large whiskey first thing each morning, very few social circles wouldn't be concerned, but in some circles (mainly male metal music fans in my experience) a joint in the morning is normal, and looked at in the same way as a morning cigarette.

I must point out that drugs are not always an escape. The cases that never reach the press are the regular cases of drugs used very sparingly, to enhance an experience, much like a glass of wine.

I think, therefore, that Libby should choose that either temporarily altering your mind is pleasurable and, though occasionally very dangerous, worth the risk (and that the degree of risk can be decided individually by adults), or that all things that impair your normal faculties are not good and should be avoided.

Kathy, London,

"with all the other losers"

Recent research on the chemistry of addiction (as presented on R4 on Monday night) suggests it might be fairer to say "with all of the other genetically more impulsive risk-taking people".

Your choice of phrase shows how much of the baggage you are actually bringing to the table when you want to discuss the issue.

You pre-emptively criticise those who claims "that unconnected “psychological problems” are to blame."

Then immediately draw our attention to:
"a couple of rich, successful, beautiful, highly praised people with plenty of friends and affectionate families and few very solid problems trashed themselves on cocaine and vodka regularly, and threw away their lives."

Why would they do that? Pre-existing psychological problems perchance?

Duncan, Leeds, West Yorkshire

You also want to encourage the media to more readily condemn drug users, and to reflect the negative sides of drug use.
Someone I know died recently and the papers had nothing to say but 'drugs drugs drugs'! It didn't seem to matter that the post-mortem was inconclusive, as indeed were the toxicology reports.

Can the press really be trusted with this?

Duncan, Leeds, West Yorkshire

Dimitris,

"People are making conscious choices",

Addicts don't make informed choices and, as they do not restrict their self-abuse to life on a desert island, it affects others and therefore becomes their problem - in need of a solution - too. To categorise this as 'nanny-statish' - when ultimately it is others who pick up the bills, administer the medical care, inform the bereaved parents etc etc - is a misuse of the concept of the nanny state.

DavidC, Brussels, Belgium

I don't ignore drug use "to be cool". I don't use drugs or think it is a good idea to. I think it's awful what happened to these two presenters.

However, where I differ from you, is I recognise that I have NO RIGHT to tell adults what to do with their lives. If someone wants to snort a line of red ants up his nose, I think it is immoral to force that person not to.

Your statements that it feeds "poverty and crime" reflect the circular way of thinking that many have on such issues as drugs. The only reason they are associated with crime is BECAUSE they are illegal. If you legalised them, that would all change within a decade - and then you would see a huge fall in crime.

This argument was won in America in the 30's when a ban on alcohol led to the rise of the mafia, excessive street crime and the creation of dangerous homemade drinks such as Moonshine. If you made the Teletubbies illegal, then criminals on the street would be selling Tinky Winky toys in dark alleys.

Abioye A Oyetunji, London, UK

It would appear sometimes there is a secret society you have to become a member of called the cocaine club to get on in entertainment world, they seem to look out for each other but then if you've got mud on someone! put an end to there careers and get them out of our faces, why do we have to put up with them taking drugs sometimes blatantly with out fear of prosecution only to get rewarded with bigger contracts selling this and that it can't go on like this, what kind of an example is it setting to children.

Dave, Chester, UK

What rubbish you are spouting in this article.

Cocaine is NOT comparable to Canabiss. Get a grip and stop spouting worthless propoganda.

Jordan, Wales, Wales

A shaft of common sense as always - thank you Libby.

Sue Garwood, Royston, UK

Good article, about time... The bottom line is neither of these people had to die in such squalid ways and so young.

They were killed by drugs that over time had made them unable to think rationally.

Judging by some of the comments, drugs are affecting some of the posters thinking on here as well.

People who try to excuse/promote the use of drugs are already affected by their use and are in denial. Pity them.

Jeff, Woking, UK

I thought it was stunning and about time too. As a social worker I saw the misery of children whose parents used drugs. But in the main these were poor children whose parents did not work in the media. These children get taken into care, well some of them, and the families are destroyed, .
Are the children of Libby's friends in the media taken off them? Somehow I doubt it.

H Heawood, York, UK

"If Libby wants to make a difference, try visiting an inner city estate and tell the kids drugs are bad for you"

You think it's only poor inner city kids who take drugs? There are plenty of professionals who, having sold their lives to make money, turn to drugs (and drink) to make their lives seem better, then seem surprised when it doesn't solve their problems. I've seen several friends do this. Fortunately for them, the only adverse effect has been to bring to the fore their selfishness and insufferable superficiality.

Rich, London, UK

Whilst most here are arguing the toss between alcohol or cocaine, or debating as to whether drugs or otherwise killed Mark & Natasha, or whether they should be legalised or not - nobody has asked the BIG questions this story highlights....

Why do people believe they need to alter the perception of their mind to have a good time / be seen as cool / have an edge...?

What is so wrong with life / society that people feel they need to do this?

Please don't argue that it's poverty, trauma or any other persecutor of happiness, Mark and Natasha have proved that wealth in all it's guises is no competition to the temptation of mind-altering substances. And please don't use the argument that we have always done it therefore it is so, have we learn't nothing since, say, Victorian times when the streets of London were lined with men, women and children high on gin?

Alice, Barnstaple, UK

EJ Murray i would like to state that i am in my right mind,and have found Libbys "But look squarley at the facts:"paragraph that they had "few very solid problems" when the facts are Natasha Collins did have "very solid problems" due to an unfortunate accident 7 years ago where she was knocked down by a car and subsequently suffered personaly and in her career.Also i would think that consuming the amount of cocaine,alcohol and prescibed medication is a clear indication of a "very solid problem ."Of course their drug taking had contributed to their deaths,especially Natasha's,but until the coroners report into Marks death tells me otherwise i do not believe his suicide was the "direct" result of cocaine use just another contributing factor,,,,,,

Toni, merseyside, uk

What planet goes Libby Purves live on? It seems like some people never learn. Drugs are here to stay, just like alcohol. To deny this is to deny reality, and to try to outlaw them only makes things worse.

The double-standard with alcohol, which each and every week blights the High Streets of many many British towns and cities, does not help.

The old approach never worked, and the War on Drugs has and always will fail. What is needed is new thinking, together with the abandonment of the tried and failed tactics of the past. Imagine the tax revenues from legalised cannabis sales, and what they could do to help solve this issue. Imagine governments helping to ensure quality and regulating strength. Imagine people being reponsible for themselves.

John Clark, Cleggan, Eire

Appalling Ms. Purves, simply appalling. What is to blame is the decision to take drugs, indeed what is to blame is a decision. But we grow up in a culture which respects decisions, especially when they do harm to noone but the actor himself. Both those people are entitled to habeas corpus, property of their own body, like every person in a free society.
People are making conscious choices, whether you agree with them or not. If you don't take drugs, I don't see what your problem is; people weigh risk and return according to their own preference ordering and are entitled to make their choice. You are asking for a nanny for Ms. Moss or indeed Ms. Collins. But no one made you master of their lives; just as we shouldn't make the state master of our lives. If they want a nanny they can get one themselves.

Dimitris, Cambridge, MA

I thought that it was a very sensible article.
I hate the term 'recreational drugs' which makes it seem glamorous and sophisticated whereas in reality it is seedy and sordid. I find it incredibly selfish that a quick fix for them, comes before worrying about the poor people who are hurt along the way or pulled into a life of crime.

Jenny, Reading,

All those who are pro drugs because it may not hurt " them" are selfishly condemning those in the supply chain to misery ,as well as those consumers who are greatly harmed by them. It is a selfish view that accounts their own pleasure as more important than harm to someone else. "Even" Marijauna can trigger severe mental illness and there is no way to know ahead of time who will be affected.
That many people take them does not mean it is a reasonable thing to do. It means we have lost our capacity to bear discomfort and to say no to ourselves.

Marianne, Bristol, UK

I have 1st hand of drugs and they are truly evil, they destroy people, and thier lives. They get people addicted to them till their going round in circles, the side effects can be overwhelming, and all can seem too much. If i could I would ban them, but i think the way our culture is and the society we live in, this will never happen. Drugs will continue to seek and destroy life in talented people such as Mark, its a true tragedy, and until something is done this will keep happening.

Roisin, Guildford,

To J Cairns. I admire your optimism that better drugs education can prevent people taking bad choices on drugs. I'm more pessimistic. It never ceases to amaze why people choose the downward spiral; choose to take risks with their mental health. What's amazing is that the better off coke users probably eat organic and buy health supplements, ignoring the fact that coke is often mixed with petrol and sulphuric acid in its making. What really horrifies me is that really intelligent, talented and pleasant people go this way. Which is why I think drug education is pointless in many cases. Being cool and part of the trendy set is more important than the damage you are doing to yourself.

Jorge, london,

Well said, Libby. For sheer over-sentimental self-justification, addicts (of all kinds) & their deluded army of symathisers are hard to beat. So, Amy Winehouse, a priviledged, middle-class former expensive stage-school student, is excused her drug and alcohol abuse & cast in the same light as the down-troden, black female blues singers of 1930s Harlem who knew grinding poverty, terrible discrimination & physical danger, & drank & did drugs to ease the pain of daily existence. What a travesty.
The non-judgementalists seem incapable of uttering any opinion that doesn't involve blaming 'society'...never, of course, the pushers, the takers & those who glamourise or excuse the sordid trade.
The BBC should commission a documentary to show the personal harm that is done to those in the drug supply chain (apart of course from the criminal gangs profiting from the misery) from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the wasted junkies of British cities. No such prospect: no real moral compass...

DavidC, Brussels, Belgium

Dear Aunt Libby,

I blame our arboreal ancestors. They started it all by getting drunk on fermented fruit. And if the creationists are right, I imagine that frenetic week of creation

was in no small part drug-induced. The Duck-Billed Platypus! I mean, come on...

History has been defined by drug-addled achievers, for good and bad. Hitler had Dr. Morrel (Der Reichsspritzenmeister), and Churchill had Dr. Moran's

little green pills, to name a couple.

Rather than damning drugs, how about a nod of acknowledgement for the good as well as the bad.

I leave you with a quote from the great Winston Churchill,

"My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the

intervals between them."

Kevin

Kevin Haynes, Utrecht, Holland

Addiction is a perfectly normal physiological response to addictive drugs. Unfortunately, too many people consider themselves as "supermen", immune from falling into this trap. To them, addict is synonymous with tramp, something they, themselves, could never become.

Colin Lakin, Durham,

Dear Libby,
damn tragedy, damn phsychological illness, damn social problems, damn the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and all that life throws at us.....
However, drugs do not make us use them, or abuse them; it is the individual`s choice and complex social/psychological factors.
Prohibition does not work. All drugs should be legalised and taxed; the revenue should be used to educate and provide social and medical support for those unfortunate individuals with problems.
Social convention and common sense will ultimately regulate use and abuse, as it has done with drink driving and now smoking cigarettes.

Ed , stroud, glos

Despite having read many articles of this type, and the comments attached to them, it still always surprises me that there are really only 2 camps of opinion - the 'drugs are addictive and bad' angle, and the 'drugs are great in moderation' opinion. Why is there no real middle ground? I work in mental health services, and in a large percentage of people that are admitted, their acute mental illness has been precipitated by drug use. The media and government arguments are always about addiction, but addiction is a completely different issue. You don't have to be addicted for a drug to have a detrimental effect on your health. I personally think that everyone should make their own choices in life, including which particular vice they choose to indulge in. But why not offer better education about drug or alcohol use, so that judgement can be based on fact, not on knee-jerk media opinions? Then maybe we will have a debate that actually means something.

J Cairns, Edinburgh,

Congratulations to Libby Purvis, at last one of the Media Mafia has put her head above the parapet. We have known for years that the Media are the primary supporters of Cocaine use because they think is it "Cool". Before long we could have a PM who is "cool". to add to the city financial money clippers who are "cool".

Jim Ferguson, wellingboro,

Thank you Libby, that was very brave. I hope you don't feel you have to read all those nasty snide comments from druggies and that your valued friends do not take offence and throw childish tantrums like that

Nigel MacNicol, Oakham, Rutland UK

My brother has been addicted to heroin - and the rest - for 10 years now. He has turned many lives into a living hell - not just his. And it all started as a bit of escapism. Legalise drugs now and control the supply and demand. Then the drug driving problem, the prostitution, the criminality can be dealt with.

clare lumsden, cayman islands,

The sheer disparity between the hundred odd comments in this colunm alone show how the drugs menace will never be conquered in democracies. Too many people have too many different ideas on whether we should be tolerant or not, from the 'its no worse than alcohol' brigade (I'm sorry I thought we were discussing cocaine), to the 'hang all dealers' mob (sorry, but the death sentence as a debate is, well dead, and thats that). We just have to accept that some will and the majority won't and its completely down to them. All I know is that a morally literate society shouldn't feel the need to stupify itself with mind altering substances.

JL Carter, Huddersfield, United Kingdom

blaming drugs is like blaming a chicken for the bone that lodges in yer throat. Do we have free will or not? History is full of indignant well meaning citizens who think more controls are necessary. More jails. More rules. Ask instead, why people wanty to get high in the first place. take a good look at this global industrialized world, kept to a strict clock and given jobs that are better suited to robots. Day in and day out, men work like automatons, and when they are old, they are cast aside. Damn the drugs? No, damn a world painted grey, where you will submit or pay the penalty.

ingo , los angeles, california, usa

Legalise Drugs? Good Luck with that because kids as young as 13 can get served alcohol, what are they going to do with drugs?... its a death sentence for our nation.

Libby's article had some very valid points! I'm sad to say that drugs and alcohol misuse are every where. I'm sick of watching Kate Moss on adverts after her drug scandal and hearing about Amy Winehouses umpteenth visit to rehab. But these stories are everywhere and to be honest I don't think anyone bats an eye lid at it anymore. The problem isn't just in inner city estates. It's in towns and villages and at your childrens private schools!

I'm a teenager from the UK, I see the damage of alcohol and drugs and hear it almost everyday. Violence and tragedy caused by alcohol and drugs are so common that it ends up being a joke around school!

I wish I could give a solution but defending the use of drugs and legalising them is the worst idea I have heard! Are you drug users? WAKE UP BRITAIN before it is too late!!!

Gaby, Wales,

People who use drugs give the innocent mentally ill who dont take drugs a bad name, these are the people we should be helping to get well because through no fault of there own they are dragged down time and time again, due to bad press from individuals with a history of violence and severe drug abuse who commit vile crimes while on a cocktail of drugs, and drink, And then use mental illness to excuse the crime . As a carer of a daughter who as suffered with severe mental illness through no fault of there own making and despite making a miraculous recovery due to positive mental attitude, and in her own long hard lonely fight back from despair and adversity. She is my heroine beyond any shadow of a doubt, in my opinion sometimes the goodness in human nature can shine through again if we believe enough in love.

Mary Morrell, Stockport, England

I entirely agree.

I thinks drugs are abhorrent and i'm fed up with even entertaining conversation and discussion about them.

Drug dealers should either be shot or forced into hard labour.

Aaron, Hove,

I smoked canabis resin for about 2 years after my wife chucked me out of the house and cleared off with my children.
If I hadn't had the blessed relief of bringing on a deep sleep every night I would have killed myself. Many nights before I smoked the black rock I would sit with a bag on my head wondering how much it would take to extinguish my life. Without canabis I would not be here now. Guaranteed.

James, Perth, Scotland

A very good article. Binge drinking is stupid too. Brits need to learn to grow up and be moderate at their pleasures. But we won't, I'm afraid - it's in the genes : Gin lane and all that...

david, Ligneyrac, France

"Think about what you're doing! If Bob Marley hadn't smoked weed he might still be alive making political statements. "

Dude. Bob Marley died of skin cancer. Look it up.

Pauline, ny, ny

I wonder how many of the people who agree with Libby Purves actually have enough experience of drugs to comment. The number of people who make their judgments based on what they read, and have never actually taken or known anyone who has actually taken drugs is I suspect quite high. Some might call it bigotry.

M from London is a shining example of this - someone who has the cheek to suggest that not taking drugs might have given someone who had the audacity to say something he didn't like a better paid job. How can you make such assumption about someone you know nigh on nothing about?

For every tragedy of this nature, there are thousands upon thousands of individuals who take illicit substances for recreational purposes with no problems. That's a fact that many very self righteous people need to learn to deal with. Maybe a better thing to do than bleat on about the dangers of drugs would be to ask why so many people want to take them if they are so dangerous? Just a thought....

Alex, London,

The first thing we should do is ignore anyone who talks about 'drugs' in general, such generalisation shows a degree of ignorance which helps no one and ideologically glosses over a very complex subject. Libby Purves obviously falls into this category. "The press" always uses bad examples of 'drug' taking to highlight their point, forgetting of course to highlight the millions and millions of people that never enter the scope of the disasterous results radar and live happy and successful lives. I know many people from professors to doctors, from lawyers to succesful business people that fall into this category. Funny how we never see stories about these people headlined 'How i take drugs and lead a very happy and successful life", not really a story is it? It would also undermine so much of the rubbish the is spread around. Until a proper balanced view is presented, and represented by the appropriate laws, the problems that do occur from 'abusive' 'drug' taking will never be solved.

J Randall, Oxford,

It is rare that someone in the media is willing to put pen to paper and let loose against the loosers around us.

Crsipin, Bristol, UK

It never ceases to amaze me how people will justify the world wide disaster of drug use, supply & addiction because they happen to be weak enough to fal into its thrall.

The drugs trade is right up there as a threat to civilisation, and all measures must be considered to at least try and stamp it out.

Hanging dealers might be a start.

KCTP, Cumbria,

No long-term consequences of drug-use, Grant Hart?

Illegal drug-use contributes to: thousands of dirt-poor farmers around the world criminalised for growing crops for which the West (predominantly) has an insatiable appetite: the funding of criminal networks, traffikking routes (of drugs, arms and people into the UK and elsewhere) and terrorist groups (including the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan), the intensification of international corruption and civil wars.

Libby Purves is right - drugs may do a British individual no harm, but their taking illegal drugs contributes to the deaths of others. It is not hypocritical to point this out, and perhaps the hundreds of thousands of "recreational" drug users in this country could raise their eyes beyond their spliff/line/needle for a few moments to consider the consequences of what they're doing.

Sara, London ,

Oh this article is such a self rigteous load of codswallop. Please note that alchohol is not such an innocuous drug, because drug it isand it is the most prolific drug, with more addicts and victims than any other drug on the planet. More families are broken up, more people die, more car accidents are caused, more lives end up in abject misery due to alchohol than anything else known to man. So when pointing a finger at little old Marijuana why don't you point a millionfold fingers at alchohol. Why are you so misinformed. I can only assume that the alchohol industry must be funding this propaganda. Just as the meat industy funded propaganda that meat is good for us, the result, that whole parts of the human race starving to death due to misuse of grain, is now becoming news. Instead of dealing with a tiny drug problem deal with the gargantuan, massive, destructive killer called alchohol. Damn the Alchohol and the cheeky winks that go with it. Shame on society for it's blindess!

John Morgan, Old Stratford , Buckinghamshire

Those from Europe who defend the use of drugs would understand the problems it causes, here if you could see its effects. Teenagers at grammar schools turning from their education to drugs; their lives will clearly fall apart as they start to drop out, finaly ending up with a low-paid, dead-end job which they hate, and mental issues leading to the inability to form relationships without causing harm to themselves and others. If anything I say get tougher on drugs and make sentences worse, I feel it would improve our country socially and economically.

Jack, Southend-on-Sea, England

What really annoys me about this is the distortions in the drugs debate. People like Libby pick a few extreme cases out of millions and present them as typical. My father was a violent alcoholic and his drinking helped kill him at the age of 40, but it would be dishonest for me to present that as a typical case in some moralistic crusade to get alcohol banned or stigmatised.

Millions of adults choose to use illegal recreational drugs. The vast majority harm nobody by doing so and are OK. It's time to stop making millions of otherwise law abiding people into criminals and feeding organised crime.

It's time to take a stand against the moral minority, against people like Libby. We should do this by making the issue a red line in the sand, refusing point blank to vote for any politician that wants to keep prohibition going. Prohibition has been a failure and it's about time that failure is admitted and faced up to.

David, Aberdeen,

Though Sir Ian Blair's office cannot change society,only react to it, there is a seed in his pronouncments on drug use.
As is illustrated in Libby's article untill style changes drug use will continue unabated.Untill hedonism and decadence pass out of fashion the harvest in ruined lives will continue.
Though it is difficult to forsee any change ( and heaven forbid it should come about through any increased religeous fundamentalism,from which ever faith ) trends do arise.
Fame through abstention anyone.

robert everitt, wolverhampton,

Dear Aunt Libby,

I blame our arboreal ancestors. They started it all by getting drunk on fermented fruit. And if the creationists are right, I imagine that frenetic week of creation was in no small part drug-induced. The Duck-Billed Platypus! I mean, come on...

History has been defined by drug-addled achievers, for good and bad. Hitler had Dr. Morrel (Der Reichsspritzenmeister), and Churchill had Dr. Moran's little green pills, to name a couple.

Rather than damning drugs, how about a nod of acknowledgement for the good as well as the bad.

I leave you with a quote from the great Winston Churchill,

"My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them."

Kevin

Kevin Haynes, Utrecht, Holland

Libby, Thanks for this very sensible article.

G & P, Okehampton, UK

'But at least with alcohol the hangover is quicker to come, the symptoms more socially embarrassing. And it is legal.'

Nonsense. What's acceptable about foteal alcohol syndrome and delirium tremens? This is just a tragic personal incident, other than Natasha's death (also caused by the amount of vodka in her system and the cocaethelyne this created, it has nothing to do with drugs, it just seems that Speight didn't want to live without her.

Michael Stone, London,

Ned, Widmerpool, England: "The actual fact is that drugs DO NOT destroy thousands of lives of people who use them".

But what about the thousands destroyed through their production, like the men, women and children forced into drug trafficking through poverty? What about the thousands of children used as drug pushers all over the world, with their vicious adult 'handlers' in the background, hoping to get ever more children hooked?

The actual fact is that drugs cause deaths, not only among consumers but among producers and traffickers too. It's time our society stopped beating around the bush and just faced up to the facts that:
a) drugs aren't cool
b) drugs kill.

Izzie, Oxford,

I worked for a short period in the prison service as a nurse, and was appalled by the amount of drug related crime, and the amount if young addicts who are in and out like a revolving door. the cost of treatment, to little avail ,is enormous.unless we are prepared to follow the example of Singapore and hang pushers, napalm the poppy fields in Afghahistan, and declare open war on orgainised crime, we're all waisting our time.deraconian measures are the only measure to controle, not resolve the situation.it is only a question of time before people will be demanding personal firearms to defend themselves and their property, from addicts

chtis dowling, norwich, norfolk

I think that youre missing a point here. Having tried to eradicate drugs for decades its obvious that its not possible. Still prohibiting them has no effect apart from fueling organized crime. With no illegal drugs, there would be just about no organised crime. There simply would not be the money available to fuel it.

So, whatever your mantra, drugs are bad, drugs are a personal choice - who cares? Me, I have dabbled a little, a very little. I know and dislike others who do it regularly. So you choose your friends.

But drugs can not be eliminated, just as spitting cannot be eradicated. Get over it or you will die bitter. Call it natural selection if you wish. The sensible choose to not get hooked - whether they never try it or like myself, try it a few times and leave it at that is irrelevant. Few die from drug abuse though, in real terms. More to the point, what business is it of Purves, who has never tried it even, to speak about it? Your views are invalid on this topic Libby.

Pete, London, Uk

Thank you for such a forthright article on drugs, which I think badly needed saying. How anyone can so wantonly put their own health on the line defies understanding, let alone intelligence, and certainly should never be admired. There is something badly wrong with a society that can admire such folly and encourage others to follow suit, and it should never - and I too am a child of the 60s - be seen as a rite of passage. While totally accept that there is a difference between legal and illegal drugs, and rightly so, I would make a similar argument especially concerning tobacco, and, indeed, as anyone who has seen people giggling after even a few drinks, let alone seen the misery of addiction, alcohol.

John Newman, Chichester, UK

101 - Before any drugs problems can be overcome everyone has to accept that there is a problem.

So much denial - even here.

Don't you agree Rebecca, Cheshire?

R Bingham, Lauzun, France

This article is utter rubbish. If you abuse any substance, be it cocaine, alcohol, or fast food, you're putting your health and possibly your life at risk. Life is full of risks and it's up to the individual to decide what risks to take. If approached responsibly, recreational drug use attracts little risk. Certainly, when compared to rock climbing, sky diving or many other, legal, 'wholesome' activities. The drug trade is in criminal hands because governments choose to criminalise it.

Mark Simpson, London, UK

I hate the peddlers of left-wing, feminist fantasies too. Just as corrosive of real values and aspirations as drugs, these ambition-sapping philosophies have sucked the life out of this country and left it like a comatose tramp: broken, disillusioned and without hope. No wonder so many people turn to the cheap thrill of cocaine.

Adrian Gilbert, Tonbridge,

If I'm correct, the author's own son committed suicide by hanging himself. While this may allow Libby to empathize with Mark Speight's family, I doubt that, despite the assertion that she was a "fully paid-up member of the 1960s", she can empathize with recreational drug users. People use drugs because it makes them happy. There is a big difference between addiction to a substance and recreational use of a substance, which Libby seems unable to appreciate.
Again, I take issue with Libby about her "dispassionate observations of drug culture". She refers to the "peasant farmer" yet fails to mention that the peasant's only chance of getting a decent price for his crop is to grow the coca plant, or the opium poppies.
Finally, she frequently states how terrified the media are about criticizing drug abuse. Yet if all the attacks amount to poorly written polemic on subjects they don't understand, as Libby demonstrates, is there any point?

Nazir, Manchester,

I tell you what Libby, I will not tell you how to live your life and you do not get to tell me how to live mine!! There is a more common phrase for people who die from drugs use/abuse its called social evolution!! And if you are going to condemn 'drugs' lets condemn them all, alcohol, nicotine included and why not perscription sleeping drugs while we at it not to mention anti-depressants all of which can be misused in the same way as cocaine etc. I live in the Netherlands and I am not surrounded by psychotic axe wielding maniacs, as your article indicates I should. Take a lesson from the dutch, legalise it, let the users get on with it. The rest of us have far more important things to be doing with our lives than worrying about a few idiots who have no self control!

Pieter, Utrecht, Netherlands

Very well said. Where would we be as a society without the voicing of opinion? Good on you for standing up and doing so.

Reading through the comments I find it hard to draw a comparison to alcohol as I believe there is a reason why drugs are illegal - they are dangerous. Having witnessed first hand the psychological effects of drugs on otherwise perfectly sane individuals, I believe the best way to not get addicted is to have the strength of character not to start in the first place.

As for not using the loss the lives of two high profile individuals to promote the anti-drug doctrine - in my opinion there could not be a better time to do this. The matter holds much currency and hopefully will hit home to those for whom it is not too late to make the right decision.

Joanne Filbin, London,

Paul... give me a break. Drugs of any kind are riddled with danger, including the ones we take for medicinal purposes. Drugs of all kinds can cause severe personal and family issues. I personally know of situations where children are neglected due to drugs. Drugs cannot and do not help personal difficulties, it just covers them up and the outside world, so you do not have to deal with them.

It seems that many people think this is an opportunity to roll out the anti-drugs banner. Well 'great'... may be it can stop just a few youngsters from starting and potentially destroying their own lives and others. However, unfortunately it also brings out those who are pro-drug to strike up their defence. Give their families time to grieve before you all start telling me how great drugs are.

Rachel, Plymouth,

Absolutely true.

Sadly too many people are focused on saying and doing only what is considered to be 'cool.' This needs to change in society and at Government level too.

LW, Kent,

Thanks for such a positive article, Libby.

I am a male in my late twenties who watches in dismay as, each year, friends take harder drugs, bigger risks and slowly lose any interest in anything other than living a cheap pastiche of what they think is a 'cool' life.

Thankfully I've noticed a wave of healthy cynicism against drugs in the generation two after mine. Along with the want for ethically sourced foods, fairer working conditions and doing the morally right thing, a lot of people are seeing drugs (including cigarettes) as the money-making tools that they are.

The people who can smoke 'just one' cigarette or have a line of coke every three months are few and far between. In reality, many of us would potentially build up a reliance on these things.

We need to change our culture now. Drinking until you fall over isn't cool, STDs aren't cool, drugs aren't cool, smoking isn't cool, cheating isn't cool, breaking the law isn't cool, fighting isn't cool, being rude isn't cool.

Peter, Nottingham, Notts

Alcohol is a poison that kills more and ruins more than cocaine and cannabis, i take nothing no alcohol, no cannabis, no coke and this crazy ignorance when it comes to the effects of the drugs taxed and peddled by our own government leads me to believe people over look it as they ENJOY A GLASS of wine to unwind.

This leads to a demonising and incredible hipocrisy from so called intelligent people as they wish to defend there own nasty but legal habits.

It is the same as having just the one line of coke to unwind or just the one spliff, its crazy all rugs carry risks and Mark Speight was not even high when he hung himself.

When are we going to address the deeper problems of our society such as our addiction to money, fame, wealth, greed, war and stop publicizing fear and suicide.

stuart, liverpool,

It's deeply, deeply offensive to make capital out of this before Speight is even buried.

Of course, drugs can be very harmful but it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that millions of Britons use them without much at all in the way of long-term consequences, certainly no greater than those caused by weekend binge drinking.

Drugs can be great fun. That's why people take them, all over the world. I dabbled occasionally but don't bother anymore as I'm getting older and don't really hang out in the same scene.

Am I some tragic figure? No, I'm the epitome of a stable, sane, tax paying member of society. Dozens of my friends and acquaintances could tell you the same story. Yes, I know people whose lives have been harmed by drugs, but the same is true (in fact more so) for alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, destructive relationships etc.

Being hypocritical and moralising about drugs helped no one.

And trying to score cheap points with this desperately sad story is beyond contempt.

Grant Hart, London,

I'd like a show of hands, how many of these people who
find a place to channel their hate into inanimate objects
that are sometimes abused by oftentimes misinformed authority
figures enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning. How many have
ever taken antibiotics. How many have ever been given a
vaccination to protect against viral agents?

Drugs don't kill people anymore than guns kill people. A serious
contributing factor in drug abuse rates would likely be the
biased misinformation told to these children by figures of authority.
Children are told that Marijuana and Hallucinogens are
very dangerous. So why would these kids, after finding out
how not dangerous marijuana and many hallucinogens really
are, find any convincing reason to avoid heroin and cocaine. By
the time these kids realize they've been lied too it's too late.
Direct the hostility where it belongs. To the prohibition that
allows a dangerous trade to persist while only creating pain and suffering.

Will, Raleigh, NC

I really appreciated this article. Thank you.

Eric, new York,

I have heard it said that with the stress of modern living they need drugs to cope with the stress. Absolute rubbish. If someone takes to drugs it is because of lack of moral fibre to cope with ant stress. Those of us had the real stress of surviving the London blitz (as in other cities) know what real stress is. Those who shelterd in underground stations knew all about stress when they came up to ground level and found their home demolished with all their belongings gone. Then they had to go to work and at the end of the day back to the underground. Survive that for six months then you will know what stress is. We did not need drugs but sheer guts. What about the pooor devils who had to wade ashore on D day and face the hail of machine gun fire. That is stress. No, to face up to stress it takes guts and character which is sadly lacking at all levels these days.
Hugh Putt (ex Londoner)

Hugh Putt, St. James, Trinidad

So the drug apologists are out in force-drummed up to respond to this excellent article which tells it as it is. Britain has a huge drug problem (legal & illegal drugs), we are just about the worst in Europe overall, this is deeply cultural and the origins of the problem can be traced back. It has got profoundly worse at an accelerating rate since 1995 when the liberalisation/legalisation movement took off with big funding. We need to start to change the culture, Prime Minister Brown can start that process by telling the truth about cannabis and re classifying. We have had the liberalisation/leglisation debate, in spades, it has caused immense damage, it is over. Time for common sense and some political leadership.

David Raynes, Bath, UK

"But look squarely at the facts: a couple of rich, successful, beautiful, highly praised people with plenty of friends and affectionate families and few very solid problems trashed themselves on cocaine and vodka regularly"

You have missed the point. They were rich, successful and beautiful WHILE using drugs. Indeed they had used drugs for decades to help them over personal problems that otherwise may have killed them.

One of them had an accident and fell into a bath - greif at her death prompted Marks death. Do not blame the drugs for this. If Mark had an accident in his car and killed Natasha it would have resulted in the same situation.

Paul, Barnsley,

I find it ironic that the most knee-jerk, defensive and reactionary posts are from those who are "pro-drug". The unwillingness of many drug users to acknowledge the true horror how the "product" got to the market place is staggeringly hypocritical. A lot of the pro-drug posters would appear to be deeply conservative and unwilling to join in any debate that upsets their preconceptions - in contrast to the image of the free-wheeling, free-thinking, open-minded hedonists they seem to have of themselves. People who woudn't dream of buying unethical products on the high street don't hesitate to buy cheap cocaine wiithout a though to why it is so cheap and available.

Shirley, London,

Well written. Drugs have no happy ending,just and ending.
If the vomiting cramps and personal dissolution could be better seen then the glibness of the user could be ignored. Legalise it all and cut the feet from under the Drug warlords of Afghanistan and Colombia.Or use Agent Orange and deforest the growing fields.

steven rainbow, southend on sea essex, ENGLAND

Bravo Libby - thank goodness there is at least one person in the media who's got some sense!

sk, East Sussex, East Sussex

Well said. I don't agree with much you say, but I agree with this.
As a former user, we used to laugh that we were supporting the PLO with a certain variety of hash. I wonder how many people now joke about supporting the Taleban or Columbian drug barons with their drug of choice. A large number, I expect. After all, drug use is cool, so it's OK. It robs a person of their morality from day One.
I've seen decent people go insane on marijuana and decent people become nasty pieces of work because of smack or speed. I've also seen horrors with alcohol abuse.
You are right, it galls to see middle-aged men on TV sniggering about coke use. It's shocking, but as with many things, we can choose not to watch such ones. It won't make a lot of difference until a lot of people start turning off the TV and not reading about these 'cool' morons.
It's also worthwhile writing to the medium concerned as saying why you won't be watching anymore. Just don't expect a decent response - they're all at it.

Paul M, Puerto del Rosario, Spain

Tiran, could you let me know the who these 'scientists, authors and inventors' are that you refer to please? Not sure I remember any mention at school of Einstein's LSD habit, or Dickens love of magic mushrooms.

Also, perhaps if it wasn't for the weekends spent delving in to ecstacy or MDMA (which I though for years was a post graduate diploma in marketing) you might now have a very well paid job in IT.

Also, are your drugs delivered by a friendly man on a bicycle who makes then in his garden shed for a few select customers? Drugs are the product of an illegal enterprise and people who sell drugs don't often stop there. You may be doing no one else but yourself harm when taking drugs, but when you buy them you are funding criminals who probably do a lot of other people a lot of harm.

M, London,

Wow! So many views in here. Let's look at some facts:

Any geniuses were geniuses *before* they took the drugs/alcohol. Think of all the great 'comeback' albums (Red Hot Chili Peppers after giving up heroin, John Coltrane, also after giving up heroin)

Marketing and advertising companies have done a good job on romanticising these images in our brains. Beautiful alcohol and cigarette logos, associations of Absinthe and artistic greatness, Cannabis and opium as exotic eastern/middle-eastern 'herbs'. Trainspotting using (mostly) good-looking actors to portray the good times and the bad.

Think about what you're doing! If Bob Marley hadn't smoked weed he might still be alive making political statements. Where has Miles Davis gone? Cocaine didn't make him a genius, he was born one!

OK so maybe legalising would help in the short term, if only to stop the war and terror going on in countries producing. What we need is society and culture that doesn't involve getting high. Enjoy life!

Peter, Nottingham, Notts

'But at least with alcohol the hangover is quicker to come, the symptoms more socially embarrassing. And it is legal.'

Another wildly irrational sidestep from someone uncomfortable with the very obvious parallels between drug and alcohol abuse.

- pssst - alcohol IS a drug. And it kills.

Enjoy your next party, Libby.

HB, Lnoodn, London

The simple fact is that drugs ruin lives. The lives of the users and that of their families. Unfortunately, I know from personal experience. Society, and many innocent people are also the victims of the people who have to pay for their drug habit.

The people who push drugs are the scum of the earth - people who support them from buying them are not much better. They know they are buying illegal substances from criminals. That's the big difference.

A solution would be to charge drug pushers for the consequences of their damage, by stripping them of all their property and bankrupt them until by enforced work, they had paid off the full costs of their actions however long it took, leaving them no more than a bare minimum to live on in barely habitable social housing. Every low-life drug pusher is responsible for 10's or 100's of thousands of pound of social costs every year, so they'd be a long time bankrupt .

Then perhaps it wouldn't be such an attractive proposition

grahamjt, Coventry,

Drugs are bad, mkay.

Mr. Mackey , South Park, Colorado

Right, so because one women can't use drugs responsibly, the rest of us have to suffer?

Also I notice you use the all-emcompassing term 'DRUGS' - I can stand cocaine, would touch it these days, but I do like a smoke now and again. Am I 'RISKING MY LIFE'?

It's this kind of hysterical overreation that stops this country having a grown up conversation about drugs, which leads to the 'wink wink culture' that Purves despises so much.

Owen, London, UK

Yes it is possible to endure the highs and lows of normal life without having to use drugs. It is called struggling towards maturity and sometimes it is uncomfortable, sometimes it hurts.
We excuse self indulgent behaviour of all kinds no matter what it costs along the way. Some people are more likely genetically to become addicted. .This means they must never touch the stuff. It does not mean they have a free pass to destroy themselves and lots of others. Calling it an illness is often used to excuse. Habits can be broken.
We all need to be a bit more bracing and less soppy towards selfishness and narcissism.

Robert, Brighton, UK

A fair article - and I think the families of the lovely Mark and Natasha would be grateful that drug use is being discussed objectively here, rather than preaching hellfire on their loved ones as I have seen on some of these forums.

I do agree that certain 'celebrities' and their drug addled lives are insulting to mental illness sufferers. As a bipolar sufferer who doesn't drink and has never taken drugs (though I occasionally smoke), I find it particularly insulting when so-called stars who have obviously abused drugs extensively turn round and claim it's because they're bipolar. The term is bandied around too lightly and seems to be used as an excuse for their behaviour. I understand, for example, that mental patients are more likely to smoke... but to have Kerry Katona and Britney Spears claim manic depression after years of fame and self abuse, makes all the readers of the trashy mags they appear in think all bipolar sufferers are like them.

R.I.P Mark and Natasha.

Eleanor, Yorkshire,

Excellent article Libby.

I see the pro-drug lobby have come out in force. I agree with you about them - they're the real corrosive force, and constantly ridicule anyone pointing the facts out.

Roger Bower, Norwich,

The total lack of information displayed both from Libby and the vast majority of posters here is unbelievable. It seems that Libby herself, and everyone else, for that matter, is solely informed by individual stories in the press. The automatic assumption seems to be drug users are automtically addicted, whilst on the other hand, alchohol users rarely cause any harm to themselves or others. The ignorance is to much to comprehend. The ability to stare the facts in the face (i.e. that Alchohol abuse is the most prevelant form af drug abuse and the most costly to our society, and that the main contributing factor to the dangers of illecit drug use is the fact that the drug use, supply and production is illegal anf thus pushed underground and given other to the dangers of organised crime) is disgraceful. Please can people like Libby actually research the topic before illiciting such an ill informed piece of writing on us? And positive drugs stories: The Beatles, Sigmund Freud, 2 of many...

Leigh Thompson, London, England

This article is ridiclously biast.

Pathetic.

I'm a long standing drugs user, I smoke cannabis 5 times a week and every few months or so delve into ecstacy or mdma on a night out.

It's about moderation, and quantity. We are in a society of over indulgence and this shows through in every light.

And the author talks about there being no benefits of drug use? How about mind expanding drugs such as LSD, Magic Mushrooms and DMT that have helped numerous scientists, authors and inventors to create some of the modern worlds finest pieces of work, both written, scientific or art.

And for the record, I hold down an averagely well paid job in Information Technology, work five days a week 9-5.30 and have done for the past 10 years.

Tiran, Edinburgh, Scotland

I agree that drugs are corrosive, and social disapproval of them might help. However, as Libby said, Ms. Collins died with her "body full of vodka and cocaine".

I can't find the bit where Libby suggests that vodka should be criminalised, though.

The war on alcohol didn't work in the US during the prohibition era - it just made the Mafia very rich. The war on drugs isn't working now.

Chris Mitchell, Bristol,

Renita
- you obviosuly don't know too much about the subject.

A glass of wine at night is a reasonable amount

A gram or two of coke is not. That would more in the region of a few bottles of wine.


Thanks for pitching in though

Chris Da Pink, Chorley,

The drugs have nothing to do with anything.

Something awful happens- drugs are revealed to be involved et voila! Blame the drugs! It must be all about the drugs!

Rebecca, Cheshire,

Good article Libby,

As a former recreational drug user I agree with a great deal of what you are saying, and also those disagreeing with you. The difficulty is, as below where Margaret d'Armenia points out, "the dangers only became clear over time, and many if not most teenagers lack the life experience and emotional maturity to take informed decisions on the use of drugs".

As a younger person I had no problem with drug use and was liberal about it, as I start thinking about having a fulfilling life (work, career, social life) I am sick of the drug sub-culture and society's acceptance of drugs.

I'm 22.

C. Lion, Bristol, England

Toni, Merseyside. How on earth can can anyone in their right mind not associate the deaths of these two people directly with illegal drugs? It is this kind of ignorance which makes susceptible people even more so by skating over the dangers of life-destroying drugs.

E J Murray, Kerry, Ireland

`WELL WRITTEN LIBBY!!!
All of those people who think it is a tragerdy are over reacting.
My idea of a tragerdy is when some form of harm was inflicted by someone or something unwillingly onto a person,i.e MURDER,RAPE,CHILD SEX ABUSE!
Had Mr Speight and Ms Collins been two toddlers who had accidently opened a container that contained cocaine and swallowed some , then subsequently died THAT would have been a tragerdy.
The two people who died must have been aware on a virtual daily basis about the dangers of hard drugs.Had they not heard about and seen pictures of Whinehouse and Dogerhty??????
I think the only people who disagree with Libby are either drug users themselves or are completely in denial.

Sam, lewisham,

I agree 100% with this article.
I don't understand why any healthy human being would have to take drugs, and why would anyone feel the need to defend the onesdoing so. A glass of wine in the evening hardly kills anyone (actually it is proven to be good for your health), but a gram or two of cocaine a night? How good would that be?
As long as it is "cool" to be like Kate Moss it will be ever so cool to take drugs.. Seems like only the deaths of some people will perhaps begin to make us understand the danger of using drugs and that, in my opinion, is very sad.

Renita, Tallinn, Estonia

Perhaps all the commentators in support of drugs are themselves drug users or know of one close who is!! It is either the foregoing, or they lack common sense. (Please do not tell me, sense is not common. On this subject, it is not only common, it is rather obvious)

Annie, Cambridge, UK

'Just say No' - great model to follow. Was so successful the last time.

Iain Dobson, edinburgh, uk

A few very solid problems????? It has been noted that Natsha was run over several years ago and suffered subseqeuntly because of this.A once promising carreer restricted.Following her death Mark Speight took his own life,he didnt "trash it" he took it,not from drug misuse but by hanging not from drug induced psychosis but from an un bearable grief of losing the woman he loved!! Honestly,they awarded you with an OBE???

Toni, merseyside, uk

Brilliant bit of very brave writing. This devestating end to two such young lives should surely be another lesson at least to the obvously intelligent, wealthy middle class young (and not so young). Its a shame that Mark Speight didnt stay around to tell them about his experience first hand. How dare they go on doing this and making the whole thing appear so "trendy" when people are dying just in the process of getting this stuff to us in the West. The comment from Penny, London says it all I think "this behavious is not typical of a cocaine user". Just a bits Ok as long as you dont do too much I presume she means! Really?!!

sue, truro,

Alcohol is the most insidious drug currently in use. It is responsible for more crime, more death and more cost to the NHS. Yet it is accepted, encouraged even within our culture.

Whether we like it or not Cocaine, Heroin, Cannabis and all the rest are also part of our culture. Not encouraged I grant you. But following 70 years of prohibition, the criminal empires built on its proceeds, provide an easy obtained product through established channels.

The fact is that all drugs, not just illegal ones, can make you feel good, give you an edge. And while they do, people will take them.

Because the `drug dealer' is a one stop shop. Customers can easily progress from smoking Cannabis to smoking Heroin.

Who's going to tell them its the biggest mistake of their lives ?

Not the drug dealer.

You wont stop people taking drugs, so decriminalise all drugs regulate it and stop pouring billions into the criminal underworld.

andy, manchester,

Thank you Libby for risking being 'uncool' and saying it like it is. Twelve years ago I came across some professionals working with young people- so-called experts. They sought to be non-judgmental and uncensorious and saw their duty as telling young people about the dangers of drugs abuse and letting them make their own decisions. However, the dangers ( as in the case of cannabis) only became clear over time, and many if not most teenagers lack the life experience and emotional maturity to take informed decisions on the use of drugs. As you say, some will be throwing their lives away. These things are difficult to say because they are, even today, counter-cultural, and it is wonderful therefore to hear you say them. All power to your elbow, Libby.

Margaret d'Armenia, London , England

Well said. I think the point is that there are a lot of intelligent, very successful people out there who either take drugs themselves or don't think at all badly of others who do. The general 'anything goes' attitude is repugnant. May I invite these people to visit Singapore. Carrying drugs into the country raises a presumption of trafficking - and you get hanged for that around here. So please come...you're all invited. I used to be a social-welfarist extreme liberal. But then I grew up and had children of my own.

Peter, Singapore, Singapore

The howls of protest and false equivalence! 'How about a positive drugs story?' bewails Josh from Aberdeen (unabashedly when the wreaths for Corinne Bailey Rae's Aberdonian husband have hardly wilted).

Josh, you must on drugs to suggest such a thing. Tell you what, you think of one positive story first - that's one where recreational drugs have proved beneficial for all concerned. Drugs quickly turn ordinary people into fools. Alcohol abuse is a more gradual process of deterioration not least because you have to drink a lot of it. Most of us are light alcohol users because it can allow you to retain a measure of control. Light drugs use is not in any way tenable.

Joe Kova, Bristol, UK

its so typical to jump on the 'i hate drugs bandwagon'. Drugs are only one factor in our messed up society that drive people to suicide. Alcohol is another evil but this doesnt make as interesting headlines! I personally think the problem is quantity, whether this is too much alcohol or drugs or even food! People just dont know when to stop- we live in an excessive culture on every level!

Emma, London, UK

My brother hanged himself in abject misery after sustained cannabis use: before this event he had many psychotic episodes. At the time it was my contention that the weed triggered his paranoid schizophrenic episodes.

Is recreational drug use - self-poisoning - bad? On the debit side the answer is that drug taking can be an expensive, demanding, hazardous and occasionally fatal pastime. On the credit side narcotics can indeed open the doors to perception, as artists such as de Quincy, Coleridge, Poe, Rimbaud, Cocteau, Bill Burroughs and Jim Morrison have shown us.

My life is richer for my having experimented with almost the entire spectrum of available drugs - over which I have no regrets. I have moved on. Nevertheless I bitterly regret that my brother was not able to. These losses may be the price incurred for the exercise of personal liberty and the right to make mistakes.

pleroma, Helsinki, Finland

Fact, people have always taken substances to change thier perception and for enjoyment . Fact ,the war on drugs and prohibition do not work and mostly criminalises those who are most disadvantaged in society. Substances are cheaper and more prevelant than ever before.

The substances that are most to blame in this case are the legal ones being alcohol and sleeping tablets. Both of which if you are addicted too you are at serious risk of death if you stop using them suddenly unlike all the illegal substances. Have we got a balance in this discussion ? I dont think we have . Does anyone know how many people die of prescription drugs, alcohol and cigarette related deaths a year as oppossed to illegal substances ? I do

darren, cleethorpes,

he lived in a nice area i bet he used to have to go and get it from some other poverty stricken crime filled area .i really dislike social drug takers they dont have to live with what they leave behind. i feel they are the worst kind of drug takers as they have choices and opertunites that people in my area can only dream about.

geraldine, london, tottenham

The 'meeja' culture that destroyed these people is as corrosive as any other group mentality - the influential people all do drugs, so the clear message is if you want to one of them, you need to do what they do, and if you don't do that, you can forget any aspiration to become part of the ruling elite. This ends up with the squalid and degrading 'party' that claimed two more lives.

We, that is people outside the media clique, should also be alarmed that the media industry is dominated by people in whose interest it is to portray their behaviour in their media as normal and acceptable in order to justify it to themselves and everybody else, and to normalise it, a propaganda coup if ever there was one.

Jacques Francis, Westcott,

Does the author suggest that as alcohol is legal it somehow lessens the impact it has on peoples lives?
Yes, hangovers from alcohol arrive quickly, but surely the author is not so naive as to portray this as the only price to pay from excessive drinking.
If we are to look at this story as the tragic effects of excessive cocaine use, then surely the decisive factor here is excess, therefore alcohol must be viewed in the same context.
Excessive alcohol use damages, destroys, ruins and kills far more lives than cocaine.
There is perhaps reason when people 'point the finger at alcohol abuse'.
For someone to recognise the destructive effects of excessive alcohol use does in no way automatically imply they are 'Defenders of drugs'.
Some seemingly reactionary and sadly opportunistic journalistic opinions expressed in this piece.
Ross

Rossthelab, edinburgh,

I find the pro-'recreational'-drug posters to this article very offensive. If you had no choice, i.e. every man, woman and child were required to take these drugs would you continue to hold your views? Would you, like Selwyn Gummer force feed your child a product known to be of potential danger. Well?

Nora, London, UK

Dear Ms Serena Gill
Two years ago,Libby Purves lost her son Nick Heiney, a singularly gifted writer and by all accounts a lovely, wry person. He had struggled against depression for years, and eventually he took his own life. So no, I very much doubt she's of the "pull your socks up" school of thought. She watched her beautiful boy fight, stoically and with dignity, for as long as he could; she can be allowed some impatience with those who gamble their unexamined mental health in the pursuit of cool.

Whether they're indifferent to consequences they imagine as improbably distant, or are in the grip of a compulsion they can't resist, substance-abusers have the luxury of faith in their own reliable sanity - until they don't. As she sees it,they're wilfully exposing themselves to the possibility of despair, when they have the chance to revel in the beauty of mundane contentment.You can see why it might seem obscene to her, no? Or would that involve too much informed, constructive empathy?

JGM, Sydney,

Every morning as I walk my dog I see a woman sitting in the local bus shelter talking to herself. She looks at leat 90 when in fact she is in early 50s. I can still see her in her Afghan coat as one of the most attractive women of her generation in my home town. The cause of her decline was drugs. Any drugs campaign should perhaps show a photograph of this person then and now. What I find amazing is how old and poor all the drug users of my generation now look. Rather than tolerating drug misuse amongst those in the media those in control should be taking the strongest possible action to protect the young who can't afford the periodic trips to the Priory.

John, Maesteg, UK

Absolutely fantastic article! I agree with EVERY SINGLE word you say.

I can't believe people can think anything different about drugs and the misuse of alcohol. In some ways I don't care about the people who take them - it's the people being made to smuggle them into the country by drug lords I feel sorry for. I hate it when people take drugs, get off them and proclaim that they are bloody heros for having the courage to do it. Idiots. Hypocrites.

And as for alcohol - in moderation it is absolutely fine whereas drinking a load of vodka with a concoction of drugs is not - it's common sense surely??!!

Amy Gibbs, Southampton, UK

Its a such a shame.
The current laws for unlawful posession of non-medically prescribed narcotic substances in the UK are laughable by comparison to our countries.
Its just another great blunder in the catelogue of this Labour Governments "head-in-the-sand-mentality". Which is sadly this destroying the young minds of our youth nation-wide !.
The Government needs to get tough and stop pussy-footing about
will political correctness and save our youth from ruin... for the sake of tomorrow please !

Richard, London, United Kindom

These articles get so boring.
Why was no mention made of the Vodka? If they had drunk a bottle of Vodka each and then had a couple puffs on a joint, you would be coming down hard on the cannabis.

The bottom line is that these two people ABUSED drugs. Just like if you abuse alcohol, just like if you abuse over the counter medication.

If they had died of severe alcohol poisoning, the article would most likely focus on the reasons WHY they drank so much. Why not focus on the reasons why they had such excessive amounts.

Can you not spot the difference between someone who has a couple joints in a week and someone who goes and sticks a serious amount of cocaine, alcohol and medication into their bodies?

Should alcohol be banned because of the persistent drunks who sit in the corner of Wetherspoon's all day?

Jamie, Halifax, West Yorkshire

COME ON LIBBY!
We're confronted every day with shelves full of packets boldly displaying the warning. SMOKING KILLS.
What difference does it make?
And what difference does it make to 5 million out of work young kids whose only escape is watching spoon-fed celebrities cavorting around on TV, or listening to the 'wiser than thou' comments of the chattering classes, lucky enough to have been educated out of the death trap of third class citizenship?

Theo Nelson, South Hams,

I'm not sure what the point of this article is - we all know the dangers of drugs. All Ms Purves seems to have done is use the article as an outlet for her own anger and repugnance of drug culture. But such prattle achieves nothing. Suggesting a solution would help. But perhaps Ms Purves has deliberately avoided doing so because she knows that the only solution is legalisation. And that is what really makes her angry.

Philip, Bath, UK

When I see children and former soldiers with serious physical disabilities struggling every day of their lives, I am disgusted when these wealthy successful people destroy their health.

Ms Purves should have brought in the contribution of alcohol to the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, since that has been investigated so recently

Paul , northwich, england

Quite right. Ban vodka immediately.

SH, London,

Libby summed my feelings up perfectly - it's all such a terrible waste..of talent, energy, example, money, time.

Tom Barry, Oxford,

The sleeping pills and alcohol would have been plenty enough to kill this young woman. This behaviour is not typical of a cocaine user, and Ms. Purves should know that being young in the 1960's is not in itself a qualification to know about abuse today.

Penny, London,

Fantastic article, couldn't agree more.

Rafael Garcia, London, London

Libby

If you really wanted to do something about the problem you would shop the countless people in the media who you know are taking drugs. You will not do this because you would rather write an inconsequential article about the problem.

John, LONDON, ENGLAND

Well said Ms Purves. It takescourage to say what an awful lot of people are thinking and you said it.. As Mark Speight apparently said himself, nothing is what it seems. Sitting with my son watching 'big picture, little picture' in our safe and rosy little world is, I now know, so far removed from the reality behind the scenes.

I am frightened for my son, what future he will find when he gets past Cbeebies and CBBC, as he begins to learn about the real picture.....

Mark Speight has been an inspiration not only to my son but also to me and I'm devastated, I love him and his work. I have been glued to the news since last Monday praying for a positive outcome.

But that does not mean I am in denial of the facts. A complete waste. This should be a lesson to us all.

To the families and friends, the policemen who met Mark in Kilburn, the people who found Mark and the many thousands moved by this sad story (including myself) I offer my deepest sympathies.

Alice, Barnstaple, UK

with more apologies to bill hicks (josh, aberdeen)

Millions of none cocaine users die every single day!

phil, dalton, cumbria

LIibby Purves should be ashamed of herself for this cheap sensationalist moralising at the expense of the recently deceased. The actual fact is that drugs DO NOT destroy thousands of lives of people who use them, just as millions of people have a glass of wine a day to no ill effect. The coroner actually cited a heart problem which led to her falling asleep in the bath.

Ned, Widmerpool, England

People who use illegal drugs are taking part in a criminal conspiracy (that means completely unregulated by law unlike alcohol) which murders and terrorises people. I've never understood why drug takers don't understand that. It's morally reprehensible because the drugs trade is run by thugs and greedy monsters who don't care that people die and have their lives (and their families) ruined because of their disgusting trade.

verona, London, UK

Dear Ms Gill,

Your most eleoquent, well-versed and extremely controlled retort to Libby Purves' condemnation of drugs has an inverted sycophantic edge. Ms Purves this, Ms Purves that. You sound like you think you're an expert in all of this. Substance abuse is an illness? Are you a doctor claiming to know something about illegal drugs and the resolution of chemical addiction? If so, how come so many like Natasha and Mark are no longer here? You're right Libby, Bloody Drugs.

Rosie, London,

top childrens presenter i repeat CHILDRENS PRESENTER. tragic loss but do we really want our children to use these people as role models.surely the tv companys must have had some idea as to what was going on . still i suppose its the ratings that matter. how many more are doing the same or is it a requirement for there cvs

bernie, maidstone, england

Dear Libby, may I presume that by "paid up" you mean that you dabbled with the obvious in the 60's? The ban the bomb, the free love, the "journey to the east", drugs and psychodelia? If so, I respect your comments as one of those who has managed the transitions in life well. It is, however, the "scene" in post Thatcher Britain, perhaps by backlash, to seek wealth, glamour and celebrity - or at least to emulate it when all else fails. There are many "victims" of both generations and the common denominator seems to be the drugs and booze. That the former are illegal and the latter taxed seems incongruous, but the damage both can do to the individual and to society is only highlighted such sad cases as these. You are right to bring the issue forward for debate, if only for others to do what you, I and other "elders" have had to do - stop, take stock, consider and take a position. Drugs and booze contributed to the loss of these bright lives, but so did social attitudes. Good piece, Libby

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

Excellent article. Ignore those who say "now is not the time to sit in judgement" or rubbish like that. You don't start to investigate a road accident six months after the event to save "feelings" - you do it while it's still fresh.

John Tomlinson, Brentwood, UK

You've made my day with your article. I have seen first hand the schizophrenic result and attempted suicide of a previously apparently healthy graduate after taking cannabis. Comparison with alcohol doesn't make drugs any more acceptable any more than a big crime makes a smaller one OK.
Well written and about time it was put as clearly.

Derek Cannell, Angor, NI

Very tragic story,

Funny, anything that involves the word "drugs" is always treated in a very different sort of logic.

However why can't people just accept that it was a tragic accident. Had one of them died scuba diving, or mountain climbing, no one would be saying - gosh, we should stop people from doing these activities. They decided to take the risk and sadly suffered the consequences. It was their choice and people need to just accept that.

Jin, London, UK

"This should hardly need to be said.. Damn the drugs." But it HAS to be said by responsible persons like this experienced media person. We don't learn