Everything you wanted to know about Class A drugs, but were too afraid to ask
From why politicians shouldn’t be forming drug policy to the future of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (really), new drugs’ columnist for ‘The Face’, Simon Doherty, has the answers you need
Sunday 31 July By Tilly Pearman
If you’ve ever wondered what the world’s first MDMA shop might look like, where drugs go when you snort them, or whether supplements can really save you from a comedown, then Simon Doherty is your man. The senior social editor at Vice and bona fide drug connoisseur has taken up a new side gig as the resident drugs columnist for Brit sub-culture magazine, The Face.
To be very clear, this isn’t a Goop-style trip to the rainforest where some vague information on psychedelic therapy is delivered via a televised bunch of strangers laughing, crying, and then crying some more. Doherty will be keeping things first-hand with personal and relatable accounts of his own narcotics-induced experiences; like the time he got high on weed chocolate before descending into an anxiety pit where ‘a snarling platoon of security guards would burst in from every exit and kick me to a bloody pulp like a pack of hyenas descending upon a piece of rotting meat’. Fun!
We caught up to chat about Doherty's views on drug policy, to learn whether a ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is paving the way for future healthcare, and why we can (partially) blame Brexit for ruining last year’s high.
To be very clear, this isn’t a Goop-style trip to the rainforest where some vague information on psychedelic therapy is delivered via a televised bunch of strangers laughing, crying, and then crying some more. Doherty will be keeping things first-hand with personal and relatable accounts of his own narcotics-induced experiences; like the time he got high on weed chocolate before descending into an anxiety pit where ‘a snarling platoon of security guards would burst in from every exit and kick me to a bloody pulp like a pack of hyenas descending upon a piece of rotting meat’. Fun!
We caught up to chat about Doherty's views on drug policy, to learn whether a ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is paving the way for future healthcare, and why we can (partially) blame Brexit for ruining last year’s high.
Q: Your new column for The Face is all about drugs. How do you approach the complexities around it as a subject?
A: A drug column is basically a science column. I mainly speak to academics who talk me through the science of drugs; everything is meticulously fact-checked because drugs are a tricky topic to cover. You have a duty to convey the truth about them, which is that they are widely used and most people never have a problem. Sometimes drugs are great, but, on the other hand, sometimes drugs are really dangerous. No drug is totally safe to use and of course, if you’re a poly-drug user – using multiple substances at once – the potential harms increase. I want to give science-backed harm reduction advice to people who use drugs. I think it’s really important to do that and I’m glad that The Face does too.
Q: How do you ensure the information – which can be very science-heavy – remains relatable and easy to understand?
A: Studying psychology was useful because it enables me to dissect the studies and pass on the findings to the audience. A lot of valuable drug-related information is hidden in niche academic journals that are often written in an elaborate academic language, making it difficult to follow. I hope to make it more digestible. I also sprinkle in anecdotes about the drug culture that I see around me from living in London. It’s all fascinating to me; the column is driven by curiosity and I learn something new from every article.
Q: Your first story looked at pill purity and nodded to the pandemic and Brexit as contributing factors in a fall in drug quality and efficacy. Is it fair to say Brexit ruined our high?
A: I think Brexit certainly interrupted our ‘high’ in relation to MDMA. The big ecstasy manufacturers in Holland scaled back their activities during the pandemic because clubs and festivals shut. There was also a problem with Brexit interrupting road haulage, which is how nearly all our ecstasy comes in – on containers, on the back of lorries from mainland Europe. This resulted in a lot of talk of ‘an MDMA drought’, which never materialised but the quality last year went down, and because of all that, half of the pills contained no ecstasy at all.
Q: And how about now? Have things returned to normal?
A: Initial signs are that it’s all back to normal now. In fact, the pills are really strong at the moment, it’s ridiculous. A pill containing over 400mg of MDMA was recently recorded in Manchester – that’s enough to kill multiple people with one single pill. This is largely due to a new way of manufacturing MDMA which began around 2010. Using much more readily available precursor chemicals, the result was that the cost of manufacturing MDMA on a large scale went down significantly and the strength of the pills simultaneously went through the roof.
Q: Drug testing centres are becoming more prevalent, but beyond this what do you think is needed to change within drug policy to enable a safer and more ethical future?
A: I’m a huge fan of testing centres; I think The Loop has saved a lot of lives. Only when people can arm themselves with the knowledge of exactly what is in their drugs can they make fully informed decisions regarding their drug use. I think that if we put testing centres in every city centre and festival, then MDMA deaths, for instance, would be dramatically reduced. In Holland, drug testing is common and fully tolerated by the police; their MDMA deaths are very low. In my opinion, once you place these drugs in the context of prohibition it just increases the harm to the individual users and society as a whole. It’s hard to think of a more damaging social policy.
Q: Do you think policies on drugs should be left to politicians?
A: Scientists should be making drug policy decisions, not politicians who might have moral or politically strategic motives. That doesn’t help people who are struggling with drugs.
Q: It's been said that we’re in the midst of a ‘psychedelic renaissance’. Do you think this trend will continue, and how much do you think it will steer future drug policies?
A: The writing is on the wall now in regard to the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, but sadly our scientists continue to have to wade through reams of red tape to complete their work. When the overwhelming majority are in favour of using psychedelics as a medicine, I’m sure the politicians will follow suit.
Q: The UK’s first ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic opened in Bristol last year. With treatments starting at £6,000, is this a realistic model for future healthcare?
A: It looks to me like we are on the cusp of psychedelics revolutionising psychiatry. Of course, I think that all healthcare should be universal; any therapeutic methods that could ease someone’s suffering in some way should be freely available within a medical setting. After all, we take much more dangerous drugs, like diamorphine in hospitals. But we don’t become heroin addicts after an operation because it’s in a controlled environment.
It’s ironic to me that drug prohibition ostentatiously exists to reduce harm. The law itself increases the harm to drug users and has clearly hampered medical development. I think those operating drug-assisted psychotherapy clinics are real pioneers, but hopefully it will eventually be on the NHS too. Because right now the majority of people can’t afford private healthcare, meaning you’ve got thousands of people in this country self-medicating, using psychedelics but not in a therapeutic setting. They are forced to break the law and are not getting access to the correct doses, aftercare and so on.
Q: Do you think we will ever have safe, legal and ethical recreational drugs?
I don't think we'll ever have drugs that are safe per se, because no drug is 100% safe – they all come with varying risks that significantly increase if you're a poly-drug user. I do think that we can make drugs safer though, through education and harm reduction messages – that's what my column in The Face is all about.
If all drugs were legalised and regulated tomorrow that would make them safer to individuals who take them and society as a whole – I can't really imagine that happening in the near future though. Perhaps if they were legalised it could become ethical too. At the moment, most illegal drugs are incredibly unethical – people are murdered and rainforests are hacked down to maintain our coke supply; MDMA manufactures in the Netherlands dump so much toxic waste; and people are kidnapped and trafficked to the UK to work in cannabis farms so we can have a joint when we get home from work. It's all pretty unethical at the moment because drug prohibition pushes the trade underground.
Q: Finally, which drugs do you predict will be trending this summer and as such will be important for people to be aware of?
A: If I had to guess I’d say alcohol will remain the most popular and most damaging drug. Coke, MDMA, nitrous oxide and ketamine will remain popular. Crystal meth is an outsider creeping in to some societal subsets; that’s one to keep an eye on as it’s not traditionally big in the UK. I’m also hearing that G [GHB/GBL] seems to be moving beyond queer clubbing scenes and chemsex scenes and crossing over to include some more mainstream interest. You need to be really clued up if you’re taking that. The optimum dose of G is very close to the dose that will kill you.
The views and opinions expressed in the interview are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official policy or position of Soho House Ltd.
If you are struggling with drug use you can click here to see a list of organisations that can help, and for information about how the NHS can help, click here . If you think there might be a drug-related emergency do not hesitate to ring 999 – you will never be in trouble for doing this.
A: A drug column is basically a science column. I mainly speak to academics who talk me through the science of drugs; everything is meticulously fact-checked because drugs are a tricky topic to cover. You have a duty to convey the truth about them, which is that they are widely used and most people never have a problem. Sometimes drugs are great, but, on the other hand, sometimes drugs are really dangerous. No drug is totally safe to use and of course, if you’re a poly-drug user – using multiple substances at once – the potential harms increase. I want to give science-backed harm reduction advice to people who use drugs. I think it’s really important to do that and I’m glad that The Face does too.
Q: How do you ensure the information – which can be very science-heavy – remains relatable and easy to understand?
A: Studying psychology was useful because it enables me to dissect the studies and pass on the findings to the audience. A lot of valuable drug-related information is hidden in niche academic journals that are often written in an elaborate academic language, making it difficult to follow. I hope to make it more digestible. I also sprinkle in anecdotes about the drug culture that I see around me from living in London. It’s all fascinating to me; the column is driven by curiosity and I learn something new from every article.
Q: Your first story looked at pill purity and nodded to the pandemic and Brexit as contributing factors in a fall in drug quality and efficacy. Is it fair to say Brexit ruined our high?
A: I think Brexit certainly interrupted our ‘high’ in relation to MDMA. The big ecstasy manufacturers in Holland scaled back their activities during the pandemic because clubs and festivals shut. There was also a problem with Brexit interrupting road haulage, which is how nearly all our ecstasy comes in – on containers, on the back of lorries from mainland Europe. This resulted in a lot of talk of ‘an MDMA drought’, which never materialised but the quality last year went down, and because of all that, half of the pills contained no ecstasy at all.
Q: And how about now? Have things returned to normal?
A: Initial signs are that it’s all back to normal now. In fact, the pills are really strong at the moment, it’s ridiculous. A pill containing over 400mg of MDMA was recently recorded in Manchester – that’s enough to kill multiple people with one single pill. This is largely due to a new way of manufacturing MDMA which began around 2010. Using much more readily available precursor chemicals, the result was that the cost of manufacturing MDMA on a large scale went down significantly and the strength of the pills simultaneously went through the roof.
Q: Drug testing centres are becoming more prevalent, but beyond this what do you think is needed to change within drug policy to enable a safer and more ethical future?
A: I’m a huge fan of testing centres; I think The Loop has saved a lot of lives. Only when people can arm themselves with the knowledge of exactly what is in their drugs can they make fully informed decisions regarding their drug use. I think that if we put testing centres in every city centre and festival, then MDMA deaths, for instance, would be dramatically reduced. In Holland, drug testing is common and fully tolerated by the police; their MDMA deaths are very low. In my opinion, once you place these drugs in the context of prohibition it just increases the harm to the individual users and society as a whole. It’s hard to think of a more damaging social policy.
Q: Do you think policies on drugs should be left to politicians?
A: Scientists should be making drug policy decisions, not politicians who might have moral or politically strategic motives. That doesn’t help people who are struggling with drugs.
Q: It's been said that we’re in the midst of a ‘psychedelic renaissance’. Do you think this trend will continue, and how much do you think it will steer future drug policies?
A: The writing is on the wall now in regard to the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, but sadly our scientists continue to have to wade through reams of red tape to complete their work. When the overwhelming majority are in favour of using psychedelics as a medicine, I’m sure the politicians will follow suit.
Q: The UK’s first ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic opened in Bristol last year. With treatments starting at £6,000, is this a realistic model for future healthcare?
A: It looks to me like we are on the cusp of psychedelics revolutionising psychiatry. Of course, I think that all healthcare should be universal; any therapeutic methods that could ease someone’s suffering in some way should be freely available within a medical setting. After all, we take much more dangerous drugs, like diamorphine in hospitals. But we don’t become heroin addicts after an operation because it’s in a controlled environment.
It’s ironic to me that drug prohibition ostentatiously exists to reduce harm. The law itself increases the harm to drug users and has clearly hampered medical development. I think those operating drug-assisted psychotherapy clinics are real pioneers, but hopefully it will eventually be on the NHS too. Because right now the majority of people can’t afford private healthcare, meaning you’ve got thousands of people in this country self-medicating, using psychedelics but not in a therapeutic setting. They are forced to break the law and are not getting access to the correct doses, aftercare and so on.
Q: Do you think we will ever have safe, legal and ethical recreational drugs?
I don't think we'll ever have drugs that are safe per se, because no drug is 100% safe – they all come with varying risks that significantly increase if you're a poly-drug user. I do think that we can make drugs safer though, through education and harm reduction messages – that's what my column in The Face is all about.
If all drugs were legalised and regulated tomorrow that would make them safer to individuals who take them and society as a whole – I can't really imagine that happening in the near future though. Perhaps if they were legalised it could become ethical too. At the moment, most illegal drugs are incredibly unethical – people are murdered and rainforests are hacked down to maintain our coke supply; MDMA manufactures in the Netherlands dump so much toxic waste; and people are kidnapped and trafficked to the UK to work in cannabis farms so we can have a joint when we get home from work. It's all pretty unethical at the moment because drug prohibition pushes the trade underground.
Q: Finally, which drugs do you predict will be trending this summer and as such will be important for people to be aware of?
A: If I had to guess I’d say alcohol will remain the most popular and most damaging drug. Coke, MDMA, nitrous oxide and ketamine will remain popular. Crystal meth is an outsider creeping in to some societal subsets; that’s one to keep an eye on as it’s not traditionally big in the UK. I’m also hearing that G [GHB/GBL] seems to be moving beyond queer clubbing scenes and chemsex scenes and crossing over to include some more mainstream interest. You need to be really clued up if you’re taking that. The optimum dose of G is very close to the dose that will kill you.
The views and opinions expressed in the interview are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official policy or position of Soho House Ltd.
If you are struggling with drug use you can click here to see a list of organisations that can help, and for information about how the NHS can help, click here . If you think there might be a drug-related emergency do not hesitate to ring 999 – you will never be in trouble for doing this.