However, I didn't have to take drugs to experience them. Drugs are there, a part of life for teenagers even if they don't take them themselves. There is a whole culture surrounding drugs, from music and clubs, to magazines and clothes. It affects everything, and not necessarily in a bad way. One of the few good things in Hellawell's report was the switch of its emphasis from cannabis to heroin and cocaine.
Cannabis is a completely separate drug, used in completely different surroundings.
Cannabis users don't steal to feed their habit in the way heroin and cocaine users have been known to do. However, the report failed to tackle the reason why young people use drugs in the first place. It is no wonder that the government wasn't keen to address the problem. Young people use drugs because there is little else to do and because, quite simply, they make you feel good. Drugs are likely to offer the most exhilarating experience many people are ever likely to encounter.