Are you ever too old or posh to take drugs?

I was reading an interview with novelist Tony Parsons in the Observer Magzine last Sunday, in which he proclaimed "drugs are ridiculous for anyone over 25." That seems a particularly wild statement. A lot of people these days haven't even moved out of their parents' house by 25, and are still going to raves well into their thirties. 25 seems a little premature to wield the "look at that twat" axe.

Maybe I'm biased. I don't see what is so ridiculous about taking drugs anyway. (I presume we are talking about recreational substances here, not injecting-into-your-eyeballs smack and crack addictions - more on which later). Speaking as someone who went out and took drugs more or less for a living, and exceeded Mr Parson's cut off point by about five years, I don't really understand his second comment: "Whatever a person's age, [drugs are] always a dead end," he rattles on. "You are always chasing (and failing) to recreate that first hit."

Really? If I'd been trying and failing to recreate that "first hit" (excuse the arcane drug-speak) every time I graced the dancefloor, I would have got fed up with it all long before I did. Besides, it's entirely possible to get just as totally mashed the 50,000th time as the first, if you know the right dealers.

Which one Chelsea billionaire and his missus allegedly do. Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing and his wife Eva have been nicked on suspicion of possesion of crack cocaine and heroin after being caught "trying to smuggle small wraps of drugs into a function at the US embassy"

According to the Evening Standard, Mrs Rausing is a keen tennis player and patron of a drugs charity - but this image of a functioning 'crackhead' does not compute with the stuffy newspaper which goes on to reveal: "it also shows how crack has risen out of inner city ghettoes and been adopted by some middle-class drug users." No shit! Speak to anyone who goes out in East London and they'll tell you of Bank Holiday crack banquettes and arty farty types who love an occasional pipe. When are the media going to get with the programme? No one is too posh or too old to take drugs.