SAYING YES TO DRUGS

It has been nearly six years since the film version of Irvine Welsh's book
"Trainspotting" came out, catapulting the Scottish author into the literary
limelight and popularizing the term "heroin chic." Critics panned his two
follow-up novels for pushing style over substance. They both made
international best-seller lists anyway. His latest work, "Glue," the story
of four boys from the Edinburgh "schemes," or ghettos, growing up--and
getting dragged down--together, has been receiving rave reviews on both
sides of the Atlantic. Critics are saying that Welsh, 42, is finally
writing his age. During his U.S. book tour, he spoke with NEWSWEEK's Babak
Dehghanpisheh at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. Excerpts:

DEHGHANPISHEH: You've made your reputation by writing about drugged-out
characters. What's your drug of choice?

WELSH: I stopped drinking and doing drugs in January because I ran the
London Marathon. I had to work hard to get into shape. But I just realized
how much I enjoy going out and getting f---ed up. During the past month I
must have done every kind of drug possible.

DEHGHANPISHEH: What's your experience with heroin?

WELSH: I was on heroin in the early '80s, and people were saying, "You've
got to get off that stuff." I came back a few years later, and they were on
it. It was like a massive epidemic. People weren't necessarily hard-core
smack addicts; they were just trying it because it was there.

DEHGHANPISHEH: You've spoken out publicly for a more common-sense approach
to drug policy. With the success of movies like "Traffic," do you see a
shift in the debate on drugs?

WELSH: The new debate on drugs brought on by pop culture is taking place
among the populace, not the policymakers. The politicians want to keep
things behind closed doors. They like the illicitness of it. I don't
understand why drugs aren't legalized and taxed; it would cut out a lot of
the criminality. Look at Prohibition in the United States. Politicians
fight a phony war against drugs and use it to institute more repressive
measures against poor communities."

DEHGHANPISHEH: Are you still into the dance scene?

WELSH: I still love going to Ibiza and all that. But the dance music has
this kind of corporate, bingo-hall feel to it. It's been appropriated by
commercialism.

DEHGHANPISHEH: How do drugs tie in?

WELSH: Every youth culture has had its own drugs. It's about an affirmation
of the joy of life and a celebration of ritual. It's also about escape. If
the world were better, you wouldn't need to get out of it.

DEHGHANPISHEH: You've become a "cult" icon in the literary world. Is there
a certain degree of stereotyping that goes along with this?

WELSH: If I don't write about Scottish "schemies" on drugs in every book,
then I get accused of selling out. If I do, I get accused of not
growing--it's like saying Alice Walker or Toni Morrison shouldn't write
about black people. I'm now working on a piece about a witch doctor and two
warlords in southern Sudan, not a drug dealer in sight. I don't know how
that will go down.

DEHGHANPISHEH: Where do you dig up the unpleasant characters that have made
you famous?

WELSH: People ask, "How can you write these sort of horrible, right-wing,
misogynistic characters?" and I say just listen to their type of music and
really feel it. I've got all of this Michael Bolton and heavy-metal stuff
so I can understand the characters in every way.

DEHGHANPISHEH: There is a feeling of working-class desperation hidden
beneath the humor in many of your books.

WELSH: Growing up in the [Edinburgh] housing schemes, there weren't any
resources to get you out--you were trapped in a ghetto. It split the
working class between the upwardly mobile and the ones who were stuck.
There really was no aspirational middle class.

DEHGHANPISHEH: Has your criticism of this class system been recognized?

WELSH: When "Trainspotting" first came out, the Conservatives were in power
[in Britain]. A lot of people in the Labour Party said, "Oh, what a great
book this is, all these horrible years of Thatcherism, it's a savage
indictment of the Tories." But as soon as they got to power, they carried
on with exactly the same policies as the Tories. The Labour Party have now
become masters of spin.

DEHGHANPISHEH: How does that compare with your impression of class in the
United States?

WELSH: The United States is more of a meritocratic society. There aren't as
many of the social barriers that exist in the U.K. In the U.S. someone can
make their money and go spend it, but in the U.K. people will find all
sorts of reasons to turn up their noses because you have the wrong shoes or
wrong tie.

DEHGHANPISHEH: If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?

WELSH: I'd definitely be doing music. I'm in a band called Hibee Nation,
but we haven't practiced in 18 months. We had three singles, and they all
bombed. We've got to get back to the studio, or we'll never see each other
again.