Winfield House, the US embassy in London, has guest rooms and, according to the ambassador, extravagant parties. I remember one especially when my friends would go to the women to smell the drugs. I thought good champagne was enough. Even at a time when civilization was highly esteemed, some needed to be elevated.
After twenty years at one of London’s best beverage parties in my past life as the editor of the Evening Standard’s Society, it has always amazed me that, despite the many entertainment provided, people want to be in the coldest place where cocaine takes you.
On Monday this week, Boris Johnson decided to launch a new anti-extremist war taking medication. The Prime Minister kicked off in Liverpool, a modern-day Conservative city, dressed in a large black police parka to join police in the early hours of the morning raids on suspected drug dealers.
Why not do it somewhere in the south of England – one of the smartest houses in Somerset or Oxfordshire, say, having a good party? Having left London as a result of the epidemic, they are now facing urban dwellers realizing that there is nothing to do in the countryside over the weekend. I am told that the economy of class A in the region has deteriorated.
The only problem is that, with the cameras following him in his tight-fitting clothes, there is always the risk of the party member saying “Hello, old friend” to the PM.
Or a party in west London? It’s not as if she’s innocent of taking drugs in the way I think instead Theresa May was. I remember being at a party in a warehouse near Notting Hill. A crowd of people began to pass by at a spot where the mayor of London at the time stood next to them. They were polite: they gave him a sign. He refused.
Punishment for middle-class people is more severe than beating – and refusing passports and driving licenses. It should make them sit up and recognize, and so they should. The problem is not just crime; it is the exploitation of middle-class people – or boys – who speak out loud.
How many lawyers, city dwellers or those with access to parliament (where a Sunday Times survey this month found that cocaine in many places) are infiltrating areas where gangs operate? Retailers have been running the Deliveroo brand for many years so customers do not have to see the inner city areas where children dressed in bicycles are sent by bicycle, or on low-level “regional lines” where products are transported from cities. outside of cities and towns. These kids are not packing Wellies with a smooth cup.
While at university I ran with a fast set. As our justice correspondent Dominic Raab does not think that the repeated investigations and dismissals of the police, I do not worry too much and go over the record.
Back then I was friends with a boy from Oxford and a young man from Willesden who was giving it to him. I chatted with Willesden’s boyfriend one evening. Sitting around his mother’s house, he said he knew that the beautiful country he was playing in would be a long one. Oxford kids go on, they can be like his neighbors – on the dole or worse. The interior was playing on the radio that summer. I don’t remember his name.
The Oxford boy and I were in a relationship with a proud and unscrupulous writer with his girlfriend, in a black quartet in Sally Rooney’s. Interview with Friends. The writer had developed a taste for crack and asked a friend of mine to take a taxi to pick up some from a townhouse in Kensington, which had just gone to the seeds.
The boy walked past the porch door as I waited for the taxi. Half an hour later he appeared with his shirt open, his eyes black, and his “stone” in his hand.
He told me that at every step, someone would lead him to the next mezzanine, the next room, until the king reached his throne on top. He bought it, but when he got down the stairs he wanted to pay – a piece of his crack. The fun is over. By the time he reached the first floor, there was nothing left, and the desperate ones were still ahead of him. He fought his way out.
I quickly left my friends, kept a record of the dinner party and read a few notes – all the boys – who had never been out of this section. He did not want a passport in the end.
The seller of the king in his court, the writer, the children, the blind: there is a union of all concerned to help the world.
What to do? Why, some say, not following the example of countries like Portugal, which have ratified the reality of drug use 20 years ago and banned the possession of drugs, or Canada, which is testing the safe delivery of opioids?
I find it hard to argue. But this should not prevent another discussion, which is why drugs are sold and used. Happiness, money, flight, strength, overcoming frustration – all human weaknesses are played out. And for those who are lucky, it is likely to confirm their status, knowing that the police do not always break down their doors.
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