It’s a Friday night in a small Yorkshire town. It is busy as usual around the weekend and the bars and clubs are brimming. Young men and women go in and out of these venues all night, many having had something more than the pink gin and lemonade they had been sipping at the bar.
Though they are less easily obtained now a days than they might have been in the 1980s and 1990’s, recreational drug usage is still common. Even in a in small town, it doesn’t take much looking around to spot those who could be using any one of the common night life drugs that so many people still take before hopping onto the dancefloor.
The risks of using the sorts of recreational drugs is well documented and has been talked about for many years, with various tests and studies being done, all showing that these substances cause long term harm to many, as well as lots of issues for the other people who may have to deal with drug users. One of those who regularly must deal with people using drugs is police officer Steven Bellamy.
Fairly new into the police service, Steven has spent a lot of his time so far working through the nights on weekends, so has plenty of experience in dealing with substance users in his area. When asked on his opinion about drug use on weekends and nights out, he had quite a damning opinion about their effects: “It leads to more offences, vulnerability in people who are then taken advantage of.”
Going on from this, Steven went on to mention how consumers can never be sure what is in the drugs they are buying. Since people taking these drugs have no idea what these substances are put in with them, as well what they think they are buying, this can be extremely dangerous for both the people taking them and others around them: “Drugs are also changed a lot and can have harmful effects depending on what they are mixed with which people are not aware of.”
Steven then said that given the amount of underage people are seen out in town on Friday and Saturday nights, this further increases the risks seen in party drugs being passed around and sold so readily around towns: “At young ages , teenagers are going out and getting exposed to drugs in these environments which has extremely harmful effects on the children’s brains development, causing cases of them becoming bipolar or schizophrenic.”
As well as the police services being forced to deal with people using drugs on nights out, there are others that must deal with them and their behaviour. These are the door staff that work weekends and other busy evenings and they have to deal with plenty of those who find their way around town whilst using substances such as cocaine or ketamine. A former bouncer Paul Glenwright recalls the many people he caught almost every weekend with these sorts of substances: “Every Friday and Saturday I would have to confiscate and kick out what was mostly young lads. I would have to pull out most of them from the toilets and send them packing.”
From the perspective of a police officer and others who work on the doors it would seem that there is no real reason for anyone to want to get involved given the dangers and effects of most narcotics that are taken in the party environments that towns have on Friday and Saturday nights. There are, however still plenty of people who choose to undergo activities that do involve taking various different kind of substances to enhance their evenings and nights out. Given the obvious negative effects of taking these, from the long term effects on health, both physical and mental, to the way they change the behaviours of people. So the only real question is why do it?
One person who tells a slightly different side to this story is Carl Perry, 24. Though not dependant on any substance usage, Carl has done his fair share of going out and taking proceedings on nights out past the limitations of the law. Though he is no stranger to going out and taking various substances, he insists he only ever does it to have a good time and enjoy himself: “I don’t take drugs because I need to, I do it because it is fun. Going out and doing whatever takes any place, no matter where it is onto the next level, and makes what would be a bang average night out something much more enjoyable.”
From a different perspective to that of someone who works in law enforcement, it makes it seem as though different party drugs can be harmless, or at least they are from this perspective: “To me it is absolutely harmless, a lot of people fuss over drugs, but I have never done anything to hurt anyone or anything, I only ever just have fun, so if I am following the rules and not hurting anyone or doing anything wrong then what is the problem? I just want to be able to do my own thing without people getting in the way and demonising me for enjoying myself.”
From one extreme to the other, there are clearly some of those that believe that for the most part, party drug culture is harmless, and for some such as Carl there is no trouble. There are however very real issues that it causes to others that just get caught in the wake of people having fun, a lot of the time starting fights with people, and just generally causing issues and trouble out in bars and clubs on the weekends. Through the eyes of some, there is no real issue with these sorts behaviours, and those people just want to be allowed to have their fun and get on with what they enjoy. This being without the opposition and interference of those they deem to be just be looking for people to arrest and blame for various anti-social behaviours and violent incidents.
Some names have been changed for the purpose of this article.