HEROIN IS SAFE AND FUN, SAYS SHOCK BBC SHOW

Taking cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and even heroin is not dangerous but
extremely enjoyable, according to a controversial BBC television
programme to be shown this week. Smoking a cannabis joint is as relaxing
as drinking a glass of wine, while many people find taking ecstasy the
most pleasurable experience of their lives. Injecting a modest dose of
heroin can make mundane but essential household chores enjoyable, drug
users say on Chemical Britannia.

In dozens of interviews the users explain why the popularity of drugs is
escalating, despite the overwhelmingly negative message in schools, the
media and from government.

The number of illegal drug-takers in Britain has risen from around a
million in the Sixties to three million in the Eighties, and to around
10 million now. Some surveys suggest that the majority of people under
the age of 40 have taken illegal drugs at some point.

Debbie Christie, the executive producer, who used drugs in the past,
said: 'It's an issue that needs airing. It's a responsible piece of
television showing why people take drugs - which is because they like
them, not because they are pushed them.'

The presenter, Mat Southwell, is a former NHS employee who says he has
taken ecstasy for 12 years, and still does so regularly. He enjoys drugs
and argues they should be legalised.

'Most people take drugs because they want to relax and feel good, much
in the same way they might have a drink at the weekend. But while
alcohol is socially acceptable, people are being put in prison for the
chemical equivalent of buying a round of drinks,' Southwell said.

One user on the programme explains: 'Heroin is my drug of choice over
alcohol or cocaine. I take it at weekends in small doses, and do the
gardening.'

A regular ecstasy user says: 'Ecstasy is one of the nicest things I have
ever tried. I know it is a positive force.' Another said: 'You can form
great friendships with someone you have never met before. I am in
control of what I have - I don't take it habitually every weekend.'

However, the programme was lambasted as irresponsible by John Griffith,
chief executive of the group Drug Abuse Resistance Education, which
works in 500 schools to warn children of the dangers of drugs.

He said: 'It's very disturbing that any programme is produced in such a
way that it makes people think there are benefits to taking drugs that
may harm them in the long run. It makes our work harder in making young
people realise that most people don't get involved in drugs.'

But producer Christie denied it would encourage people to take up drugs:
'It would be remarkable if one programme changed the numbers of people
taking drugs.'

In the UK, all drugs were legal, and used routinely across society,
until 1860. The former Prime Minister William Gladstone and Florence
Nightingale used opium, while Queen Victoria used cannabis. Arthur Conan
Doyle wrote a graphic description of Sherlock Holmes injecting drugs
with a syringe as a normal way of relaxing.

However, the temperance movement succeeded in getting drugs
progressively banned until all but alcohol and tobacco were made illegal
early in the last century. The US went further, banning alcohol during
prohibition, until it was forced to abandon the policy as unworkable.

The show's presenter argues that banned drugs should be made legal
again. 'As a drug user I am sick of having my life attacked and being
forced outside the law. It's time to turn the spotlight on the
politicians who, despite all the evidence, refuse to accept that the war
on drugs has failed and, in fact, has done more harm than good,'
Southwell said.

When cocaine was criminalised, global production was about 10 tonnes a
year, but it has since swelled to 700 tonnes a year. Illegal drugs now
account for eight per cent of global trade, making it one of the three
largest businesses in the world - with oil and the arms trade.

Southwell claims that if the banned drugs were legalised and regulated,
the quality and distribution could be controlled, and a large percentage
of the revenue could be spent offering realistic and effective education
to young people about drugs. Legalisation could also make them less
dangerous, by allowing people to seek medical help for any side effects.
For example cocaine users who find that their noses are being burnt by
the powder could be given 'nasal douches'.

Southwell insists this is a simple matter of human rights: 'The
principle of individual freedom linked to social responsibility lies at
the heart of our democracy. As an adult and responsible member of
society I absolutely assert my right to take any mind-altering
substance, be that ecstasy, alcohol, heroin, tobacco or cannabis. No
one, least of all the state, has the right to tell me otherwise.'

* Chemical Britannia is on BBC2 on Wednesday at 11.20pm