" The desire to experience some altered state of consciousness seems to be an intrinsic part of the human condition...we are surrounded by drugs...the cups of coffee and tea, the glasses of beer, wine and whiskey, the snorts of cocaine, the joints, the tablets of acid, the fixes of heroin, and the ubiquitous tranquillisers and sleeping pills...drug taking still remains one of the easiest and most imediate ways of of altering psychological states; for some people the ease and immediacy with which drugs achieve these effects prove particularly seductive. So long as there are drug takers there will be drugs casualties...but the quest to eliminate drug taking has proved to be search for a chimera. Drug taking is here to stay and one way or another we must all learn to live with drugs."

The issue of young people and drug use has attracted an unprecedented amount of public concern and debate during the 1990's. Yet the debate has been simplistic and has become increasingly distorted and ill informed. There are clear dangers in the blinkered and sometimes irrational attitudes of the British establishmen

"What you have is a group of young people who are much more liberal in their attitudes to a range of things including drugs. Newspapers that are seen to be in touch with that are much more relevant to them."

The current drug's scene is often portrayed by politicians and the media as a modern day phenomenon, this is incorrect , heroin from the sap of poppies dates back to 5000 BC. There seems to be a human need to use drugs, seek oblivion or excitement and in essence do dangerous things. If we are to judge a drug as a ' psyochactive substance that alters the state of mind.' then drugs surround us, alcohol, caffeine, beer and cigarettes to name a few are all acceptable drugs. This confused view of drug taking is compounded by history when what we may see as an unacceptable drug today is not tomorrow and visa versa; opium was legal in the last century, yet in the 18th century caffeine was banned.

If we begin to analyse this generation's engagement with drugs as a form of consumption, a choice in self medication, based on a cost-benefit analysis of what the pleasure market and indeed pain markets can offer, the assumption that the drugs situation in the UK is a soluble social problem may be naive and what we are seeing is in fact a functional and powerful social process. Measham has pointed out some of the features of contemporary youth and their association with drugs . Firstly gender surveys suggest that being female can no longer be seen as a status which somehow prevents or reduces drug trying in adolescence. Similarly social class, once a key variable in understanding deviance, is no longer a primary indicator of illicit drug use. Moreover the high rate of drug use amongst students in the UK is likely to continue to normalise 'middle class' drugtaking .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mungham Pearson, Circular HOC/18/1994, Misuse Drugs, Rupert Murdoch's, UK Evidence, Metropolitan Police, John Major, Dependence ISDD, Betts November, Customs Excise, youth culture, drug taking, illicit drugs, illegal drugs, and/or fine, people drug, drug culture, drug users, drugs issues, drug education, senior police officers, realise adapt coverage, coverage drugs issues, betts november 1995, adapt coverage drugs,
Approximate Word count = 5926
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page double spaced)