Feed the plants and you will die! Or will you?

So the story nobody can escape today is that of two teenagers from Scunthorpe who have died allegedly as a result of taking Mephedrone.

I say allegedly because as yet, we have no facts whatsoever about this case. The police believe the deaths to be attributed to Mephedrone and that alone is deemed suitable clinical evidence to prompt the Tabloid press into a salacious frenzy of reporting about how this new killer drug needs to be banned.

In keeping with the other draconian and ineffective drug laws we have in this country, Mephedrone was always going to be banned eventually anyway. Nothing this good was ever going to remain legal forever. This case will simply expedite the process.

But what about the facts? As David Nutt, former Chief Drug Advisor to the Government found out recently to his peril, the facts are at best ignored and at worst can cost you your job.

There are far too many unanswered questions with this case to make any rational conclusion.

How much Mephedrone did they take? (Any chemical is dangerous if the correct dosage is ignored)

What if any other drugs were taken? (Alcohol certainly and reports are coming through that they were also taking Methadone, the Heroin substitute)

What was the actual cause of death?

Has the batch they took been lab tested?

This all smacks of the hysteria that was whipped up when E first hit the headlines in the early 90's. Everybody remembers the story of Leah Betts, who died taking an E at her own birthday party. (Strangely, nobody can recount the ONE high profile case of someone drinking themselves to death) It turned out that is was water, not the toxicity of the E that killed her. I don't think the Tabloid press ever ran this story though.

Yet the aforementioned Mr Nutt's advice when asked about Mephedrone recently, was that people would be better off taking MDMA (E) because it's been more thoroughly tested and is known to be relatively safe.

The one small problem here is that if you followed Mr Nutt's advice, you could end up in jail. Mephedrone is legal, available over the Internet and is about a fifth of the price. It's not quite as good as E, but hey, for a tenner a gram, it'll do.

This all points to the wider problem with our drug laws. Certainly the way Mephedrone is freely sold now is not the answer. Anybody of any age with access to a credit card can order a bag of white powder over the Internet which will arrive within a couple of days. It's labelled 'not for human consumption' so why would there be any dosage advice on the packet? And even if there was, how many people have electronic scales in their house to make sure they get their dosage right?

Yet prohibition doesn't work either. Now you still have all of the above problems, but you have to interact with criminals to get your supply and more than likely what you get is going to be cut with heaven knows what. You just hope it's something benign like talc (And it almost always is, by the way. It's not good for business to knowingly harm your customers).

People are going to take drugs. The Governments of the world have been fighting a losing battle for decades, yet drug use, particularly among young people continues to rise.

So the answer has to be decriminalisation, regulation and education. The supply can be tightly controlled to stop drugs easily getting into the hands of children in the same way alcohol and tabacco is now. Dosage information should be readily available and 'hits' sold in the correct doses to stop people making lethal mistakes. Honest and factual information should be presented to consumers to help them make informed choices about what they put in their bodies. And best of all for the Treasury, huge sums of tax revenue can be raised. Boy, do we need that right now.

Of course, it's never going to happen. We'll be fighting The War On Drugs probably as long as we're fighting the equally absurd War On Terror. No Government will risk upsetting Middle England with their Daily Mail drip fed blinkered view of the world - it would be political suicide.

So you have a choice. Take the police's advice and throw all your Mephedrone away and get yourself down to the local A&E, or quickly order as much as you can afford now, because once it's gone, it's gone.

Time to get serious

It's been a while since I checked in and already a quarter of the year is gone. Highlights so far have been a couple of great gigs I've been to, seeing both Hot Chip and the XX in the past few weeks. I've got a real taste for music at the moment with more gigs and festivals lined up for the coming months. Happy times!

I've also been busy pestering anybody who will listen for sponsorship for my upcoming cycle ride to Paris for Marie Curie. The fantastic news is that I've already reached my target of £1300, so thank you to everyone who has chipped in. You'll see the odd Facebook and Twitter post over the next couple of months, but if you've managed to escape a personal email / Facebook message /BBS PM /Twitter DM then the good news for you is, you got away with it!

Still, at least now I've hit my target, you can be assured that any money you chip in now will all go 100% to the charity. I know some people have made a few sly digs about having to pay for my weekend break away :)

Now, all the money has been raised, I now need to switch my focus to actually being able to cover the distance in May!

The absolutely disgusting winter we've had has certainly cut my training back. As soon as the snow and ice disappeared, it seemed to rain non-stop for a month. Then when the sun finally came out, the temperatures dropped again. I took a spin round Richmond Park last Sunday in biting cold conditions with a headwind ripping in to me seemingly all the way.

My first proper training event is now booked. A 65km ramble through the hilly Kent countryside, starting at Hildenborough on the 28th March. I'm hoping to get another two proper organised rides in after this before I head off to Paris.

So once again, thanks for everyone who has sponsored me so far. Others can get involved at http://original.justgiving.com/kevintuk

Word out motherlickers

Booze Price Hikes? No bad thing.

For those you haven't picked up on this story, the Government are toying with the idea of setting a minimum retail price per unit of alcohol in a bid to reduce irresponsible drinking habits. For a long time now, supermarkets have been selling booze at a loss to get people through the door and the fact remains, that if you want to get absolutely hammered, you can easily do so for less than a fiver.

The obvious outcry from responsible drinkers, is why should they have to pay an increased price for their tipple because others can't behave. Now I'm sure my position on this is going to surprise a few people, but let me try and explain.

Firstly, we need to consider than alcohol is a drug. It may be a legal drug, but legality is largely irrelevant (Let's face it, would alcohol be legal if it was discovered today?). Is it not logical to link the price of an alcoholic beverage to the quantity of the active drug contained within it? If we could suddenly buy super strength cocaine for less money than a standard gram of cocaine, would we not expect this to create greater problems within society? The fact is, illicit drug use is to some extent controlled by it's cost and I don't see why this shouldn't be the case for alcohol.

Secondly, most of us who drink responsibly, don't choose our poison of choice based on the alcohol content. I happen to prefer 'premium' strength (not super strength) lager, but that's because it tastes better. When I buy a bottle of wine, I generally don't even look at the alcohol content. I know the grapes and regions I prefer. Again, it's a taste issue. Nobody in their right mind buys super strength lager at 59p a can, or the cheapest, strongest plonk on the shelf for any other reason, than they want to get as drunk as possible, as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible.

For most of us, this legislation will have a little or no effect on our pockets whatsoever. Whether or not it goes anywhere towards fulfilling its objectives, is an entirely different question altogether.

A shot in the arm for music

Well, we have a new Christmas number one and for the first time in 5 years, it's not whoever happened to win X Factor this year. I don't need to tell you what happened and that's kind of what's so great about Rage Against The Machine pipping Joe Whassisface to the top of the Christmas chart.

This wasn't a Blur v Oasis style straight forward battle of two artists. In many ways Rage and Joe were pretty irrelevant, merely pawns in a much more interesting contest.

This was music drawing two distinct lines in the sand and stirring up people's emotions. This is music exciting people and this is music pissing people off. This is how I remember music to be when I first jumped around to 'Killing In The Name' back in the early 90's and it feels good.

This little battle has stirred something in the British musical psyche. Joe fans are ranting on Facebook about the injustice of an American shouty band they've never heard of stealing their boy's big moment. On the other side, Rage fans are reveling in sticking two fingers up to the X Factor hit conveyor belt. A victory for real music by real musicians, they say.

Whichever side you sit, it doesn't really matter. The real winner here is the music, which shapes us culturally as a society more than any other art-form.

A bit of passion, a bit of anger, a bit less nonchalant indifference.

It all bodes well for the decade to come. I hope the battle rumbles on and I hope nobody ever wins!

I'm dreaming of a grey Christmas

So today I woke up with a nice dusting of festive snow on the ground. Twice within a year - so much for Global Warming.

Maybe I'm just a cynical old git, but it's many years since I gained any pleasure from snow. It's cold, it makes journeys impossible and it makes you fall over. It also means getting out on my bike is impossible (or impossibly stupid - I did actually see one lunatic cycling down the pavement).

And today, it also made me gently glide into another car as I attempted to brake on a bend in our road. It wasn't even an impressive smash. Just enough damage to cost me my £250 excess and knock 20% off my no claims bonus.

Deep joy.

Ironically I wasn't even working today but had been drafted in at the last minute to take James to the Doctors for his swine flu jab. When James shouted at the top of his voice in the surgery "We hate crashing, it's bollocks!", I wanted the ground to swallow me up. And it wasn't even 9.30am yet.

So here's to a grey asphalt coloured Christmas. Let's leave the snow to countries that know how to deal with it. Those of you who want to, can search it out on your annual skiing holidays.

Bah humbug :(

Some things change, some things stay the same

Well I can't believe it's been almost a year since I blogged. Thanks to Lizzy for the nudge.

2009 has been quite a year it has to be said. Whilst much has stayed the same (domestic arrangements, employ, Palace still bouncing around the middle reaches of the Championship with impending financial doom seemingly just around the corner), much has also changed.

For a start I'm most likely penning this blog on my iPhone rather than sat at my desk and you've most likely discovered it on Twitter.

I've also transformed myself from Lager Lout to Lycra Lout and shed huge amounts of lard along the way. If I was looking for one image to sum up my year, it would almost certainly be bike shaped.

Professionally, it's been tough and it's fair to say I've done little to propel myself up the UK's rich list this year. Still, we keep being told we're in the worst financial melt-down since the 1930s, so there's little point dwelling on the negatives. 2010 will be much better. It's already shaping up to be so and at the moment, I'm not prepared to entertain the fact that I might be wrong.

Finally, to tell you of a challenge. Later today I will be sending off my application form to take on a London - Paris cycle ride in May 2010, in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. 374Km through Southern England and down through France, over just three days.

Not many of us can say we don't know somebody who has been struck down by this killer disease and Marie Curie do a fantastic job to make the lives of sufferers that much more tolerable and dignified. I will be proud to raise money for them in 2010.

You'll be able to chart my training progress here and of course have the opportunity to dig deep to provide sponsorship.

That's it for now, until the next time...

Back from the dead

Sorry, blog fans.

It only took me 5 minutes to get bored of blogging. I'll try and update you on everything you missed.

I've been ill, twice.
The bath decided to empty itself through the kitchen ceiling.
My foot is currently strapped up in an attempt by a physio to sort a back problem (?).
James has just thrown up all over my bed.
Palace's unbeaten run is over.
I appear to have no money in my bank account on the 7th of the month.

So 2009 looks like it's warming up to be a cracker. Well it might do once it warms up.

Tomorrow I enrol for a Pilates class at the gym. This will be the turning point in my fortunes. I will be the only person without a front bum in attendance, of this I'm sure, but it's the first step on the long road to happiness in 2009.

Until tomorrow