2024 is a special year for me, as it is my 20th anniversary of being a fake online hippy. That’s no small achievement, considering the last thing the world probably needs is a fake online hippy. Yet here I am.
I didn’t plan on becoming a fake online hippy, it just sort of happened, organically. I first used the name “northlondonhippy” on some online forums, unsurprisingly about drugs, and drug use. It wasn’t just about weed, although a lot of it was, but it was mainly about magic mushrooms. They were sort of legally available to buy in London until 2005.
When blogging first started getting popular, I was between jobs, so I started my first website, a Blogspot blog. And back in 2004, it really was a blog.
I had no idea what I was doing, much like now, only my writing in the beginning was really just stream of consciousness drivel. I even called it drivel for the first few years. I literally wrote about what I had for lunch, or how many joints I smoked. It was dull, but I posted frequently. And people read it anyway. I had followers, and fans. It was weird.
Around the same time I started posting online, I got a job with BBC News. I should have abandoned drug blogging then,, but I didn’t. I just quietly, and secretly kept going.
In 2006, I relaunched myself online with my own website, and URL. I tried to get more serious about my writing, and in some ways I did. I wasn’t as consistent, or regular in my posting habits, but I tried to have more to say. That first version of this website, was hacked to oblivion, and I lost a lot of my original content.
Things turned weird at work, and I got fucked off. So I did what any sensible human being would do, I secretly wrote a book while sitting in the BBC Newsroom. That book is called “Personal Use”, and I published it in October 2016. I wrote and published an actual book, I wasn’t just a blogger any more.
I was clueless how to promote the book, so for the first few months, I didn’t. I just gave copies of the eBook away to people on Twitter for free. And then I sent out three PR letters, and I included a signed, printed copy of the book, some chocolate, and a limited edition “Personal Use” mug. If you’ve got a mug, you’re lucky. There aren’t that many of them in the world.
I think it was the mug that did it, because one letter got a positive response. I was invited to the LBC studios, where I was interviewed by James O’Brien in January 2017, on his birthday. I hear that since Mr. O’Brien had me on his show as a guest, he’s become quite popular. Wish my radio debut had the same effect on me! To be fair, the interview did briefly increase my book sales exponentially, but it was fleeting.
I should have capitalised on this more, I should have used the momentum I had to build more of a profile. I knew I was risking my job, but I didn’t care. In fact, a part of me hoped I would be found out, as the publicity would have been useful. And then everything changed.
Mrs. Hippy had been unwell, and I didn’t really grasp how serious things were. When I did, I recommitted myself to my job, and backed off from trying to promote the book. Not long after that, my own health problems began. They’re the ones that led me to give up my job, and eventually dub myself “Epilepsy Hippy”.
When I gave up my job in Spring 2020, I outed myself as I became a full time hippy. I still didn’t realise how sick I was, and I hadn’t been diagnosed with epilepsy yet. I received a partial diagnosis around 18 months, and 10 tonic-clonic seizures later, but I didn’t receive a full diagnosis until just last month. It’s been a long, hard, confusing, frustrating, and nearly deadly 5 years, but I’m still here.
I think epilepsy is going to kill me. It’s come close a couple of times. I’m not coping with it well, and I’m struggling to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Not knowing if you’re going to drop dead tomorrow, tends to make long term planning a bit trickier.
My anniversary year will be as much about looking back, as it is looking forward. I’m going to get nostalgic, but I’m also going to try to push myself to do more, to be more. There’s got to be a reason why, after 20 years, I’m still a fake online hippy. Together, maybe we can figure it out.
So here’s to the last 20 years of my life pretending to be a hippy online for fun, and (no) profit. I promised myself when I gave up my job that I was going to concentrate on doing good, and having fun, and thanks to my poor health, I have failed at both. I’m going to pretend that my anniversary year is going to turn all that around. And my main aim for 2024 is a simple one, to not die, and to see in 2025. Anything I do beyond that, is a bonus.
So stay tuned, as I will be sporadically posting stuff as we approach the 18th of March, which is the actual anniversary of my first ever blog post. Who knows, perhaps after 20 years of being a fake, online hippy, I will finally become an unlikely, overnight success. And it would probably totally do my head in.
After a 30 year career as a journalist, working for some of the largest news organisations in the world, including Associated Press and Reuters, and 15 years as a duty news editor for BBC News, Doug – the northlondonhippy is now a full time hippy, and writer. And for the last few years, he’s been #EpilepsyHippy. His life was a whole lot more fun before gaining that new title. For real.
Doug is also the author of “Personal Use by the northlondonhippy.” “Personal Use” chronicles Doug’s years of experience with mind altering substances, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry, and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
You can also find Doug – the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy but only if you look really hard.
And if you want even more, (and who wouldn’t?) you could always check out Hippy Highlights – which is the best of the best stuff on the site, and it’s all free to read. What are you waiting for?
The Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Collection is a loosely connected series of the northlondonhippy’s most recent written pieces. It was all produced in a 5 week period.
Think of this new, inter-linked collection of material as the hippy’s second book. Effectively it is the sequel to his first book, Personal Use.
You can read all this brand new material for free right now.
December 2023 Update:
The hippy has added another piece to the collection, called “Now, Hear This”.
“Now, Hear This” was first published in November 2023, but the original idea was conceived back in March. It belongs here with the rest of the collection, and is now the introductory piece.
The hippy looks back at the roots of his lifetime love of modern music, through the songs he grew up with, and technology of the day that played it for him.
His journey began when he was 2 years old, and it started with the Beatles, and a couple of years later, Motown and more.
You’ll see, these memories turned out to be a lot more bittersweet than expected, as you read, and listen to “Now, Hear This”.
During the Summer of 1982, when the hippy was still living on the Jersey Shore, he ran into Bruce Springsteen regularly.
Bruce wasn’t just a local hero back then, he was already a major, international rock god. He’d released his first five classic albums, toured the world repeatedly, and only played the largest venues available.
That summer, the hippy saw the Boss hanging out, and performing in small bars down the shore, nearly every weekend. Some nights, more than once. And Bruce saw the hippy, too.
In this four part series, the hippy takes you back to a fairly amazing period of his young adult life.
In the mid 1980s, the hippy was loosely associated with MTV Music Television as an intern, and then occasionally employed by them as a freelance production assistant.
It’s also a tale of unrealised potential, and squandered opportunity, but it has taken the hippy a while to work all that out.
Let’s pause the real life nostalgia briefly, and take a deep dive into some alternative personal history.
There’s no sex, drugs, or rock & roll in this one. “Time Aside” is a twisty tale of time travel, anti-natalism, and regret that’s rooted in the hippy’s real life back story.
It’s bonus content, so check it out! Or you could wait for the movie?
Everyone thinks of dating apps, and websites when they think of meeting people online, but before the internet, in the 1980s, some folks were already playing around online. People were meeting up, and having naughty fun too. And the northlondonhippy was one of them.
The hippy refers to this period of time as the “Pre-Internet” in his recent series called MTV Redux. Thinking about that time was the inspiration for this series.
In the three part series, “Consenting Online Adults”the hippy overshares about many of his experiences.
And in Bonus Part Four, the hippy shares an additional tale from the Pre-Internet that deserves to stand on its own. This piece will leave you with one big question, but in Part Four – “I’ll Never Tell”.
The Ceasefire Initiative – It’s just a small, simple idea to begin the process of finally putting an end to the pointless, useless “war on drugs”. We’re not seeking donations, just your support.
On the 21st of June 1981, I got high for the very first time. It was the night of my high school graduation back in New Jersey . I wrote about it in my book, “Personal Use”, it’s the first chapter.
As today is 21st June 2021, it marks the 40th anniversary of this very significant event in my then, young life.Here is that first chapter of my book, reproduced in full.
If you dig it, you could always pick up a copy, you glorious mofos!
All the best,
Doug, the northlondonhippy
Personal Use Cover
Chapter One
A Toe in the Water
Picture it, the late 1970s.
Hair was long, queues for petrol were even longer and disco music was king.
I was a dumb kid, living in a small beach town on the east coast of America.
Burt Reynolds was the biggest film star in the world, Jaws and Star Wars were immensely popular and the BeeGees were dominating the music charts.
The 70s were weird.
I went to a small high school, there were only 200 students in my year. I wasn’t one of the cool kids, which I am sure will shock you. I wasn’t one of the uncool kids either. I was just a kid, trying to figure out my place in the world.
I‘m still trying to figure out my place in the world. Some things don’t change.
The very first drug I experimented with was tobacco.
Legal, readily available and used by just about every adult I knew at the time, tobacco was the socially acceptable drug of choice for millions. Smoking was cool, smoking was popular, smoking was a favourite pastime for many people when I was a child. Smoking is also potentially fatal, but no one seemed to care back then.
Smokers today still don’t.
Getting hold of cigarettes was easy, one of my friends acquired a pack of Marlboro Reds and a group of us went out into the woods near a local park. I was probably about 12 years old at the time. That would make it 1975.
We gathered in the woods, this small group of pre-teens, and we all lit up.
None of us really knew how to smoke, so we inhaled into our mouths and quickly exhaled. The unlucky amongst us, drew the thick smoke deeper into their lungs and were rewarded with convulsing coughs.
The taste was disgusting, but look how cool and grown up we all were! I wouldn’t smoke a cigarette again for seven years. This experience was not enjoyable.
I started smoking cigarettes properly at the age of nineteen and didn’t stop until a few years ago, at the tender age of fifty.
Cigarettes are stupid and I regretted getting hooked on them, but I still looked cool smoking them. Everyone does and that’s one of the reasons why anti-smoking campaigns don’t work. Smoking is cool, smoking is sexy. Emphysema and cancer, much less so, but they are decades away from your first smoke, so it’s a hard sell.
These days, I am still hooked on nicotine, but I use an electronic cigarette, which is a much safer, healthier way to get that sweet nicotine buzz.
The next drug I experimented with was alcohol.
My parents, like the parents of all my friends, kept well- stocked bars in their homes, so we were all exposed to liquor at an early age. Booze was normal, acceptable and readily available, much like tobacco.
I used and abused liquor for years, but I don’t drink any more.
I was 13 years old, the first time I got properly drunk. It was at a party at a friend’s house.
I learned a couple of valuable lessons that night. One: that booze can make you sick. And two, if you swiped a small amount from every bottle in your parents’ liquor cabinet, no one would notice.
Bug juice. That’s what we called it. Bug juice. You would mix a small amount of every liquor in your parents’ bar, into a bottle or jug, add something to kill the taste, like orange juice or fizzy pop and away you go.
One of the ingredients was always Creme de Menthe, a foul, minty mouthwash-like liqueur with a deep green colour. It was a popular gift, so everyone had a bottle of this, practically untouched. It became a staple ingredient in our bug juice. It always ensured a bright green colour that was the trademark of this foul swill.
A small group of us polished off a large pitcher of bug juice and proceeded to get loud and lairy. We went outside to smoke cigarettes and run around. That’s what drunken 13 year-olds do.
At some point between going outside and getting collected by my parents, I realised I was unpleasantly drunk and a bit dizzy. And then I threw up and magically felt better.
I would repeat this routine on and off, for decades. Drink too much, throw up, and feel better.
As an adult, I drank like I meant it and could polish off copious amounts of spirits. Vodka, tequila and cognac were my favourites.
I stopped drinking completely, well, around 26 years later, in 2002. And I don’t regret stopping at all, though it shocks me it took as long as it did to realise what a bad drug booze is. Live and learn. Eventually.
Tobacco and alcohol were part of my life, directly and indirectly, from my formative years right through to adulthood and middle age. And they are two of the worst drugs around in terms of harms to an individual and society.
While tobacco use has fallen, it still accounts for a shocking number of preventable deaths every year. And alcohol is one of the most damaging substances around, with many experts proclaiming it worse than heroin and cocaine due to the immense damage it continues to cause to individuals and society as a whole.
And it might have been the 1980s when the anti-drug hysteria reached its peak, but even back in the hippy- dippy 70s, the message was still clear: Drugs are bad, m’kay.
My mother was terrified by drugs, even though she was a heavy cigarette smoker and social drinker. She didn’t see herself for the drug user she really was. She tried to pass this mixed message on to me, and it was surprisingly effective. I thought booze and cigarettes were acceptable, but drugs definitely not.
Only losers were users, I once thought. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My parents, like the parents of my friends, didn’t discourage teenage drinking. In their view, drinking was OK, because ‘at least it wasn’t drugs’. Except it was a drug, but that distinction was lost on them back then. Just as it is now.
Alcohol and cigarettes are drugs, no doubt about that that, but they’re legal, so that’s OK. And they’re deadly, which is also apparently just fine too.
Back then, keg parties were the done thing. Your parents would get half a keg of cheap beer and let you have your friends over. They enabled under-age drinking as a defence to drugs. Clever, eh?
At around the age of 16, I tried weed for the first time. I didn’t get high, I didn’t come even close, but the experience taught me a lot about my own fears and perceptions.
It was early evening, after school and post extra- curricular activities. I was invited to join a few of my friends on the school playing field, to sample the devil’s weed for the very first time.
I remember being extremely nervous, worried that I would be out of control and stinking of dope, but I overcame my fears by asking my friends questions. What is it like? What does it taste like? Would people know immediately that I was high? They were all very reassuring.
We sat in a small circle, maybe half a dozen of us. A small, single skin joint was lit and passed around the circle. When my turn came, I really didn’t know what to do, so I took a puff and passed it on. I coughed a lot and everyone laughed at the newbie.
I had several turns on the joint and I didn’t feel any different. I had no idea how to smoke or how to get the smoke into my lungs. And I had no idea what I should be feeling, but I was fairly certain I wasn’t feeling anything.
But I had finally tried weed and that was the main thing. I was part of a peer group, and my green cherry was well and truly popped… except I wasn’t even slightly high.
They say weed doesn’t make you paranoid, it’s the illegality that does and that was certainly true for my first experience. I was absolutely terrified of being arrested, or worse my parents finding out I had dabbled in drugs.
We smoked another doobie, or rather my friends did, while I wasted more smoke and coughed. And when we were done, we all went home.
I remember walking into my house convinced my mother would take one look at me and know I was on drugs.
You don’t just take drugs, or rather, once you take them, you are ‘on drugs’, presumably, for life.
I said a quick hello and went straight upstairs to my bedroom. I took off all my clothes, which I was convinced reeked of weed and stuffed them into a bag. I got dressed again in clean clothes and quietly took the bag of old, stinky weed-clothes out to the trash and threw my them away. Better to have one less outfit than have my shameful secret uncovered, now that I was ‘on drugs’.
I didn’t go back downstairs after that. I can remember, even now, lying in bed, in the dark, worrying about the risk I took. I wasn’t even high, just scared.
Would I be craving acid next, or smack? Would I be stealing to support my new habit? Would I be grounded until I was 25, because I was dumb enough to take a few puffs from a joint only to end up ‘on drugs’?
Of course not! But in my less than worldly wise, 16-year- old brain, a series of horrible outcomes awaited me.
Weed was very popular in my high school. This was the late 70s, in a beach town on the east coast of America. Weed was everywhere.
I remember watching a burnout surfer kid in one of my classes, rolling joints inside a textbook, our teacher completely oblivious to it. I saw kids, stoned out of their gourds, eyes red, lids drooping, attending other classes. And there were rumours about teachers, getting high in their cars before class. They were probably all true.
My brief brush with marijuana didn’t put me off, exactly, but nor did it inspire me to try it again, at least not soon. I was still curious, but my curiosity was somewhat sated, because I could say with confidence that I had tried weed. I wouldn’t smoke again for a couple of years.
In my senior year of high school, I fell in with a different group and they were proper, hardcore stoners. They were always high and while there was never any pressure to try it again, they certainly made it look more enjoyable.
They bought it by the quarter ounce, half ounce or ounce. It was what I would now call Mexican dirt weed: darkish brown, full of twigs and seeds and dry and dusty. This was known as commercial weed at the time. It came in by the plane or boatload, from south of the border. Some people called it Colombian Gold, but those in the know said it was from Mexico.
It never looked like much in the bag, that’s for sure, nothing like the beautiful, manicured green buds we’ve grown accustom to today.
I observed the rituals of dope smoking, 1970s style. You would start with a gatefold, double album cover, opened and spread out in front of you. Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti was always a popular choice.
You would take the dirt weed and crumble it between your fingers on to the album cover, reducing it to dust. You would pull out the twigs and sticks, then sift with the edge of a pack of rolling papers, usually EZ-Widers, so the seeds would collect in the hinge of the album cover. You didn’t want the seeds in your joint, as they would explode like popcorn with a loud snap.
Joints back then were thin, single skinners, rolled neat without tobacco. In America, we always smoked it neat, mixing with tobacco was something I would pick up when I moved to the UK and started smoking hash.
Headshops were everywhere, selling pipes, bongs, power hitters, doob-tubes, roach clips and any other bit of paraphernalia you can think of and more. My friends had a wide selection to try.
On the night of my high school graduation in 1981, I ended up at a pool party with my stoner friends. They were passing around joints, hitting bongs and generally having a very good time. We were also drinking.
One of my friends had a power hitter, a piece of paraphernalia that was popular at the time. It was a squeezee plastic bottle, with a screw cap on the end and a draw hole in the side. You unscrewed the cap, inserted a lit joint into the cap, then screwed it back on the bottle. When you squeezed the bottle while covering the draw hole, smoke was forced out the end of the cap in a steady, heavy stream. Hence putting the power into a power hitter.
My friends explained to me that I needed to get the smoke into my lungs and hold it, if I wanted to get high.
I did. I did want to get high, so I followed their advice.
I took a couple of long draws from the power hitter, getting the smoke deep down into my lungs and then I coughed. The smoke was harsh and burned my throat, but I was persistent and got used to it quickly.
Before long, I was taking great lungfuls of smoke and holding it for ages.
And then it happened, I was high. For. The. Very. First. Time.
Wow!
Wow! WOW!
It was as if for the first time in my life, I actually felt normal. I felt complete. I felt like I had found the one thing that my life was missing. All of my existential angst and creeping anxiety just melted away. The world made sense, the universe made sense.
I made sense.
I knew in that moment that my life was about to get much better. I knew in that moment I had found something special, something that would help me to become the person I am today.
And I knew that I needed to have more of this wonderful substance. Lots more.
I turned to my friend and asked if he could help me get some for myself?
He said: ‘Yes.’
After a 30 year career as a journalist, working for some of the largest news organisations in the world, including Associated Press, and Reuters, and 15 years as an overnight duty news editor for BBC News, Doug – the northlondonhippy is now a full time writer, hippy, and drug law reform campaigner.
Doug is also the author of “Personal Use by the northlondonhippy.” “Personal Use” chronicles Doug’s first 35 years of drug use, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry, and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
Doug’s next book, “High Hopes” should have been published by now, but it is hard to write a book about remaining optimistic in the face of adversity, during a global pandemic. Try it yourself!
For the last year, Doug has spent most of his time hiding away from a killer virus. Bet many of you have too.
You can find Doug – the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy, but only if you look really hard.
(Photo taken Sept 2012, on my first NBH nightshift)
I have worked in the media for the past 35 years, the last 30 as a journalist. But the role I am most proud of, is my work from 2013 to 2019, as a background artist on the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News.
I didn’t start out at the BBC as a human prop in the background of the network news. From 2004, I worked there as a senior broadcast journalist too.
(TVC at dawn)
When the network news teams moved from Television Centre, into New Broadcasting House, in the spring of 2013, I got to make my on-air debut as a background artist. We don’t like to be called extras. Using that word only diminishes us.
There’s a good chance you might have spotted me during one of my many recurring appearances. I played “journalist rushing between desks”, a role I put my very heart and soul into, night after night.
I joined the BBC less than a year after I left Associated Press Television News. I worked at AP for around a decade, as a field producer, cameraman and news desk editor.
When I left AP, I had only one career goal, to work for BBC News. I eventually wangled an introduction via an old friend to the right person and started freelancing in the Spring of 2004. I got my first contract in the autumn of that year and was a member of staff until earlier this year, when I left their employ.
BBC News initially hired me as a World Duty Editor, working on the foreign desk, and I started out on the nightshift. Fifteen years later, I was still only working nights, and still working in effectively the same job. That’s half of my thirty year career as a journalist. Go me.
It wasn’t easy, joining the BBC later in life. There was so much jargon and BBC-speak, that I felt lost for the first 6 months I was there. And it is just so big. There was a lot to learn to do my new job. I was lucky that a couple of people, and one in particular, helped me get up to speed in those early days. Otherwise I would never have lasted long enough to become a background artist, when the time finally came to have that very small, yet vital on-air role.
(That’s BBC News foreground artist/newsreader Fiona Bruce on-set, with background artists/journalists behind him)
If you’ve watched BBC News on TV in the last 7 years, you no doubt noticed that behind the main set where Huw Edwards sits, is the actual BBC newsroom. That’s where I worked, that’s where I sat. If you think the CCTV surveillance is bad where you work, imagine having it broadcast to millions of people, night after night, in high definition.
When we first went live from NBH, everyone was extremely uptight about what those of us in the background might do. Journalists are notoriously unpredictable, just ask any politician.
We were discouraged from standing up and we were told not to wear bright colours. On one of the early broadcasts, someone had a hi-vis vest on, as they were preparing to depart and cycle home in the dark. It stood out, like hi-vis yellow is meant to do. But it was noticed by management, and hi-vis clothing was quickly banned from our shop floor. I think it still is to this very day. I hope that’s not a trade secret!
For the first couple of weeks, a squad of spotters patrolled the newsroom floor during BBC One network news broadcasts. They were in direct contact via radio headsets, with managers watching screens in the gallery. It was the spotter’s job was to quickly rush over on command from the gallery, to point out when people violated the rules of behaviour in the background. Mainly they just barked at us to “get down”. A lot. It was weird. I bet they had experience working as baby wranglers on a nappy advert before this gig.
As I mentioned, I only worked nights, and the Ten O’Clock news went out within the first 90 minutes of my arrival. In that time, I really would be rushing around, trying to speak to people who had been on all day, asking them questions, about what happened while I slept. Once they went home, that was it, I was on my own, so it was always good to get as much info as possible from them.
I had an actual, operational need to be in constant motion. So my character, “journalist rushing between desks” had motivation and a rich and complex backstory. I hope you agree it allowed my performance to be more multilayered, nuanced, and convincing.
The patrolling spotters didn’t like me, or care at all, why I had to move around during the news. I was yelled at more than once, to “get down”. It was about as much fun as it sounds.
When they told me to “get down” I had to constantly resist the huge urge to jump up on the desk and shout “gimme a beat!” and then do my best choreography. But then I would remember I was a short, fat, bald, middle-aged guy, with zero dancing skill. It was always a crushing blow.
What was worse, is for maybe the first 6 months of being in the new building, my colleagues were constantly telling me they spotted me on TV during the news.
It was always the same. My shift would finish around 7am, I would pass someone on the spiral stairs, or near the revolving doors, or outside on the piazza, and they would say, “I saw you on TV last night”. Or “you sure looked busy buzzing around behind Huw”. Or my personal favourite, “you looked like you were in a hurry last night.” Of course I bloody was! I was “journalist rushing between desks”!
As nice as it was to be complimented by my peers for my convincing performance, in truth I would have preferred to have never been spotted. I never asked to be a background artist. I was happy enough, just doing my real job as an overnight, duty news editor.
My specialty at BBC News, if I can call it that, was breaking news. When something unexpected or unforeseen occurred in the middle of the night, that was when I got to shine. Earthquakes, plane crashes, any disaster really. And high profile deaths too. Good news never happens in the dead of night. Only bad.
In my job as a duty news editor, I was responsible for organising the BBC’s initial response to big, breaking news and I’ve dealt with a huge range of stories, from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Asia, to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and many, many more. If you watched any TV news in the last 30 years, there’s pretty good chance you saw something I had a hand in covering. That’s not a boast, it’s just a fact.
And even though I’ve lost track and count of the number of major and minor events I have covered in the last 30 years, they have had an accumulated effect on me. How could they not? Professional detachment can only get you so far.
I still find it hard to let go of the enormity and horror of Grenfell, and I still have the occasional nightmare about it. And it still hurts many years later, to think about friends I’ve lost in the line of duty. There is a personal cost to my former line of work, and everyone ends up paying for it, eventually.
After a period of ill health last year, and my subsequent recovery, I decided to leave the BBC. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I know it is time for me to move on. I’m a full-time hippy now, something I have secretly wanted to be for a very long time.
I will cherish my time at BBC News, and as a journalist. It was great place to work, full of smart, dedicated, hard-working people. And even though new challenges and adventures hopefully await me, I know I will miss that very special time when I was a background artist on the BBC Ten O’Clock News.
I understand they have had to recast my role. It wouldn’t be the BBC News without someone portraying “journalist rushing between desks”. I wish my replacements nothing but success and all the best, as I do to all my former colleagues. I will miss you all.
Doug – the northlondonhippy
4th March 2020
(That was me, 15 years ago)
After a 30 year career as a journalist, working for some of the largest news organisations in the world, including Associated Press and Reuters, and 15 years as a duty news editor for BBC News, Doug – the northlondonhippy is now a full time writer, hippy, and the United Kingdom’s very first cannabis evangelist. Hallelujah and amen to that!
Doug is also the author of “Personal Use by the northlondonhippy.” “Personal Use” chronicles Doug’s first 35 years of drug use, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry, and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
You can also find Doug – the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy but only if you look really hard
Personal Use – Book Montage
Copyright: All words and photos are copyright the northlondonhippy…
…except the screen-grab of BBC News, which is used fairly without permission, but with affection.
Sixteen years ago, on the 4th of March 2004, I posted my first ever entry on the original northlondonhippy Blogspot blog. It was a long, rambling piece, introducing myself. It didn’t get seen by many people, but it kickstarted this thing that I am somehow, still doing. Sixteen years later, I am still pretending to be a make-believe hippy online. The pretending ends, next week.
On 4th March 2020, exactly sixteen years to the very day, I will be publishing a piece online that pretty much identifies me. It’s an extract from my forthcoming book, “High Hopes”, which is the follow up to my first book, “Personal Use”.
Personal Use
If you know me in real life, then you will learn I am the hippy. And if you know me online, then you will find out who I really am. Everybody’s finding out something, even me. I’m going to find out if I can really be a full time hippy.
I’m ready to start working again, so once this piece goes live, you can hire a hippy. Details will be available here on my website of what I can do for you, and your media organisation. Yes, you can hire a hippy. Everyone should have one on retainer, because you never know when one will come in handy. I’m a handy hippy, and I represent real value for money. Ask me about my loyalty scheme and hippy reward card.
While I am still expecting a collective “so what” from the wider world to my public revelation, should there be any media interest, I will be available to any and all media organisations that might wish to speak to me. Don’t all queue up at once!
Doesn’t matter how big or small your outlet might be. For the first fortnight after publication, I will say yes to any legitimate requests that I can physically do, in person, on the phone, or via Skype. But check this, as it is really important. After the two weeks are up, I won’t agree to just anything, and will only say yes to things that meet my new criteria for life.
What’s my new criteria for life? Simple, I will only turn up if I can have some fun, or do some good. No good? No fun? Then no hippy. No joke.
From now on, I will be writing and campaigning full time. This is what I do now. I will have more to say on this, once my piece goes live, but I will remain open to any and all opportunities. If I do this right, you will all be sick of me in no time. Maximum effort for maximum exposure.
I will also be offering all media organisations in Britain free training for their journalists with my new course called “Covering cannabis accurately in the age of legalisation”. Having spent the better part of three decades in British newsrooms, I can tell you that the general standard of cannabis knowledge is extremely low and woefully inaccurate. I aim to change that. I’m not going to teach any controversy, as the great British press manufacture plenty on their own. I will teach facts, science, and history, and I will give them an introduction into what a legal, regulated market looks like.
The UK is way behind the rest of the world when it comes to cannabis, and I don’t want to see us be the last country on earth to sort this out. If we really want to unleash the true power of global Britain, then the legal cannabis industry needs to be a part of it, for us to reach our true potential. Why do you think so many other territories are jumping on the cannabis bandwagon?
You might have noticed the countdown clock near the top of this page. When it hits zero, at midnight on Weds 4th March 2020, my new piece will go live online, here on my site. You don’t need to stay awake to read it, it will still be there in the morning, when you wake up. And so will I. And you all will know a lot more about me than I ever expected to tell anyone. Things change, I changed too. Wish me luck, I am going to need it. And I apologise in advance for the disappointment.
Hippy Highlights
While you wait, you can check out some of my recent output on this list of hippy highlights:
The northlondonhippy is an author, cannabis evangelist and recreational drug user, who has been writing about drugs and drug use for 16 years. In real life, until recently, the hippy was a senior multimedia journalist working for a large company. With over 30 years experience of working in broadcast news, the hippy’s now left journalism to embark on a career as a full time hippy.
The hippy’s book, ‘Personal Use’ details his first 35 years of drug use, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
The hippy’s next book, “High Hopes” will be published in autumn 2020.
You can also find the hippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippybut only if you look really hard.
It might not seem like it, just yet, but I am now a full time hippy. Yay! The countdown clock has ticked down and for the first time in a decade and a half, I am now unemployed.
I spent the last 30 years working as a journalist, mixed media really, but mostly TV news. The last 15 years was for the same company. It’s one you’ve heard of. but I’m not revealing it, yet. I’m not revealing much of anything, now. I’m still waiting for my final pay cheque. Once that’s banked, then I can pull back the curtain. I’m crazy, but I’m not stupid.
I will be publishing a piece in the next couple of weeks, which reveals my identity. Somewhat.
Spoiler alert: You will get my first name, and you will find out where I used to work. I’m still a nobody, my name won’t make a difference. I will still be the northlondonhippy, but I want to claim my real-life identity publicly, anyway. I have wanted to do this for a long time.
There will be a companion piece, which lays out my goals in my new role as the UK first self-proclaimed, cannabis evangelist. It’s not a crowded field, but I still want to make my mark. Hallelujah and amen to that!
Now that I have the freedom to operate a bit more openly, I want to spend the next few weeks getting some advice, I want to contact some people I admire who fight to reform our drug laws, plus some campaigners in other fields, and some media folk too. I want whatever I end up doing to have some impact.
Personal Use – Book Montage
When I wrote and published “Personal Use”, I had no expectations. It was a fun, secret side project. I used to joke if I sold a million copies, I would quit my job and be a full time hippy. I haven’t sold a million, not even close, yet here I am.
So while you wait for me to do whatever it is I am going to do, here’s a selection of 10 hippy highlights to keep you entertained:
The northlondonhippy is an anonymous author, cannabis evangelist and recreational drug user, who has been writing about drugs and drug use for over 15 years. In real life, the hippy was a senior multimedia journalist until Feb 2020. With over 30 years experience of working in broadcast news, the hippy’s now left journalism to embark on a career as a full time hippy, writer and cannabis evangelist.
The hippy’s book, ‘Personal Use’ details the hippy’s first 35 years of recreational drug taking, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
The hippy says his next book, “High Hopes” will be published in 2020. The hippy says a lot of things.
You can also find the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippybut only if you look really hard.
The first time I ever saw a string bean, I was 13 years old. I was dining with my family in a small, local restaurant, when a plate containing string beans arrived at our table.
When I say string beans, I mean long, thin, immature runner beans, you may call them something else, fine beans, green beans, you might even call them haricot vert. I’d never seen them before, because my father absolutely detested them and they were banned from my childhood home.
I don’t think I can overstate just how much my father hated string beans. He hated them with the sort of passion usually reserved for ex-wives, rival sports teams and politicians. He despised them, hard.
So when his steak arrived at the table and he gruffly ordered the server to return it to the kitchen to have the ‘green vegetable’ scraped from his plate, I didn’t understand, because I didn’t know what string beans even looked like. It wasn’t until my mother explained that I realised it was the aforementioned and disgustingly offensive, string beans. My parents had a good laugh at my ignorance, even though they were the direct cause of it.
I tried to understand why my father, a grown man, could find a vegetable so repulsive. He eventually explained that when he was in the army, he was forced to eat them on a regular basis. A tinned, tasteless, mushy version of them was slapped onto his mess tray, day after day after day. He said he made a promise to himself, that once he was out of the military, he would never, ever eat or even look at another string bean for the rest of his life.
Because of my father’s hatred of the dreaded string bean, that was my only encounter with them, that fleeting glance, before I reached adulthood. I hated string beans by proxy. My dad would eat almost anything, he ate pickled pigs knuckles, for God’s sake! If he didn’t like string beans, they must be foul and disgusting. It was the only sensible conclusion and I accepted it as gospel and never questioned it. It was the gospel of vegetables according to my sainted father.
Flash forward to years later, and I am a guest at a friend’s home for Sunday lunch. We sit down for the meal, and guess what was on my plate? That’s right, the evil green beans, which I hated only by reputation.
As an adult, I had a more open mind, and I had worked out that my parents weren’t always right, so I decided in that instant, to taste the string beans.
I loved them. They were crisp, flavourful and delicious. I took another forkful and savoured them. These are good, I thought. These are really good. And I spent my whole life until that point, avoiding them, because of my father’s insane dislike of string beans. String beans are now one of my favourite vegetables, lightly steamed with a little butter, salt and pepper. Yum!
There’s another vegetable with a bad reputation that is also undeserved: The Devil’s Lettuce. How’s that for a segue? This was always really about cannabis. Everything for me is always about cannabis.
Chances are, if you are anti-cannabis, you are hating it by proxy. You have learned to hate cannabis by channelling the hatred of others and have no first hand experience of it yourself. Lucky guess?
More likely, you have been force fed anti-cannabis propaganda your entire life. But unless you’ve experienced it for yourself, tried it yourself, you won’t really know the truth.
Perhaps I am wrong and someone you respect, someone with authority on the subject, has told you the truth, that cannabis is extremely beneficial for a variety of reasons. And if that is not true, let it be true from this point onwards. You just need to respect my authority on the subject, because I have been a daily cannabis consumer for nearly 40 years, a journalist for 30 years and I am the author of the book, “Personal Use”. This is exactly what I am telling you, that cannabis is good.
You have been lied to repeatedly, for your entire life, about cannabis. We all have, and the lies continue to dominate any discussion about weed. The only difference, is now it is easier to call out these lies, because some more sensible governments have taken steps to change their laws. We know with certainty that cannabis decriminalisation and legalisation improve things, and more importantly, doesn’t make anything else worse. It’s a win-win. Yes, yes.
I didn’t know how good string beans were until I tried them for myself. It seems obvious on the surface, but I was indoctrinated from an early age to hate the little green wonders.
We’ve all been indoctrinated to hate cannabis, to fear it, to expect the worst of it, and none of it is true. Cannabis is analogous to coffee, a mild drug that can be consumed safely on a regular basis. That said, you can die from caffeine poisoning, but you would need to consume an amount equivalent to your body weight in weed to do the same. And even then, it would probably be easier to just drop it upon your head from a great height to kill you.
Cannabis is safer than aspirin. I say that a lot, but for only one reason. It’s true. Yet no one complains if you self administer an aspirin, but self administer some cannabis…Oh wait, you can’t, because it is not legal for very much right now.
One of the many mistakes made in pursuing medical cannabis in the UK, was insisting it be on prescription. I prefer the California model, of therapeutic use with a doctor’s recommendation. Or without a doctor’s recommendation, I’m easy. You wouldn’t need a doctor to recommend taking aspirin, would you? So why would you need one for self-administering cannabis?
Some campaigners have tried desperately to exaggerate the harm cannabis can cause, trying to offer legal, medicinal cannabis as the solution. The only harm actually caused, has been by this mendacious stance and it has set the legalisation movement back.
Cannabis is cannabis, medical cannabis and recreational cannabis, are both the same cannabis. And if you grow your own, at home, that is cannabis too.
You will get no argument from me regarding the quality of some black market cannabis vs cannabis cultivated in a legal environment. I would much prefer something that has been safely grown, tested and certified as being good. I’d also be willing to pay tax on it. But please don’t lie and try to tell us that there is a genetic difference between the two.
Weed is weed, there’s good quality weed and there is shitty weed. Not all legal weed is good quality, and not all black market cannabis is shitty…but you’re more likely to get excellent weed in a legal environment and more likely to get crappy weed on the black market. It’s just simple economics and good old capitalism.
For most people, legal weed in the UK wouldn’t make much difference. The estimated 5 million people who consume cannabis regularly, would continue to do so, only without fear of arrest. And higher quality products would be available to adults. The rest of the people, those who don’t consume cannabis, are unlikely to start or notice much of a difference in their lives.
Certainly, that won’t be universal, some people will experiment, and of those who do, some may enjoy it or find it beneficial to their health and continue to consume it, but the number won’t rise significantly. How do I know that? I know it because that is what has happened in places where it has already been legalised.
And this will blow your minds, the demographic that comes around to legal cannabis the most, is older folks, in my age group, 40s, 50s and 60s. (My age is somewhere in the middle of that, so I am ahead of the curve.)
We already have a large cannabis market in the UK, but it is untaxed and unregulated. There is an existing customer base as well, who would be thrilled to see this black market legitimised and legalised. This isn’t about creating a new market, it is about improving our existing one and bringing it into the light. We have nothing to fear from this conversion and everything to gain.
I will let you in on a secret. I already smoke good weed, and enjoy quality edibles, some even home made. But I’m not doing this just for me. I’m doing this for you. You deserve to know how good cannabis is, you deserve to discover for yourself, how beneficial it can be.
Let me put it another way, I am a dual national. I don’t make much of it, but I am, British and American. I could sell up, move to Colorado, or California, tomorrow, if all I wanted was to smoke cannabis legally.
I want more than to just consume cannabis legally. I want the country I’ve lived in for more than half my life, to benefit from a legal, regulated cannabis market. London is my home, I want to give something back to the city and nation that has given me so much. I could easily jump ship, and save myself, but I don’t want to do that. I want to see the laws changed here, for the good of everyone. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, but I am planning on trying a whole lot harder in the near future. This is my calling, like a vocation, just a really cool one. I want to make it my life.
Don’t let cannabis be your string beans. Don’t hate it because others hate it. If you want to find out for yourself what the fuss is all about, go for it. If you don’t like it after trying it, that’s cool. But if you do like it, that’s even cooler. And if you don’t want to try it, that’s cool too. All I ask is that you please kindly be supportive of the millions of us who do dig it. And please educate yourselves, learn how to spot the lies. I promise to do what I can to help with that.
The northlondonhippy is an anonymous author, online cannabis activist and recreational drug user, who has been writing about drugs and drug use for over 15 years. In real life, the hippy is a senior multimedia journalist with over 30 years experience of working in news.
The hippy’s book, ‘Personal Use’ details the hippy’s first 35 years of recreational drug taking, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
You can also find the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy
A couple of weeks ago, I marked an interesting milestone in my life. I celebrated my 50/50 day.
I can already hear you asking, what is a 50/50 day? Please allow me to explain, as it is a concept of my own creation.
If you’ve read my book, “Personal Use” (getting the shameless plug in early), you will know that I wasn’t always a north London-based hippy, but I began my life on the east coast of the United States of America. I moved to London in the early 90s, when I was my late 20s. I’m mid-50s now.
My 50/50 day is a way I’ve determined to mark my dual nationality, as it is the day where I have lived exactly half of my life in each country. So the first 50% of my life was spent in the states, the 2nd half of my life has been spent in the United Kingdom.
As I know my birthday and the date I moved to the UK, it was fairly straightforward to work out the exact date of my 50/50 day. I simply used an online date calculator that easily counts the number of days between dates. It worked out that I have lived over 10,000 days in each country. Wow.
Ain’t math amazing? And clearly I have too much free time.
But what does it actually mean, to mark one’s 50/50 day? All immigrants must pass this milestone, if they live long enough, so what’s the big deal?
For me, it is a way of honouring my dual heritage and reflecting thoughtfully about it. Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have a good time.
My paternal grandparents were Scottish and they moved to America and that’s where my father was born. My mother’s parents started their lives in Italy, and also moved to America before my mother was born. Both of my parents were first generation American-born, I was second. And then I moved back to Europe. It’s the circle of life, but with jet travel.
So I am half British and all European by birth, but my first nationality is legally American. I hold two nationalities now, as I am now also British, but what does it all mean? Other than a date I can point to as a midpoint in my geographic life, I guess it doesn’t mean that much. I just thought it was a cool thing to work out.
I always like to say, I am an earthling first. It’s what we all are, we are all earthlings. We scurry around on the surface of the Earth, which makes us all earthlings. It’s the one thing we all have in common. It comes before your race, your nationality, and your gender. You are an earthling, most of all.
“Hey, do you live on earth? Me too! That’s a huge thing to have in common. Let’s be best friends!”
We are the sentient, indigenous inhabitants of this planet named after dirt. Envy us, as we may be the smartest things that exist in the universe. Or pity us, as we may be the smartest things that exist in the universe. We may be as good as it gets.
Some say claiming you are a citizen of the world is controversial. Wasn’t it Terrible Theresa May who said it makes you a “citizen of nowhere”? It was.
What Terrible Terri doesn’t understand, and will never understand is that we are all citizens of the world. We are all really Citizens of Everywhere. We all flit about on the surface of this planet and while we may remain behind artificially delineated borders, we all share common hopes and common dreams. There is more that unites us, than divides us, as they say, but we forget this simple basic truth, so easily.
Countries and borders are made up creations. We decided all this nonsense, to keep us apart, when the reality is that we are all Citizens of Everywhere. Who is to say where on the surface of the planet, we are allowed to exist? What if I want to stand over there for a while?
We all need to think in these terms, if we want to have any hope of the continuation of the human race. We desperately need to be Citizens of Everywhere.
That may sound hyperbolic, but it is not. We are rendering the planet uninhabitable and we may reach a point, in the not too distant future, where human life will not be sustainable on Earth any more.
I’m not going to lay out the case for climate change here. I accept it is happening and I believe the official estimates of the rate of change are extremely conservative. It’s much worse than the mainstream media wants to admit. It’s a climate crisis and no warning is dire enough. Though to be fair, I am seeing this view slowly creeping into the mainstream, it’s just not creeping in fast enough. Listen out for the words ‘climate crisis’, they are being used more frequently by the media.
Sometimes, I hang out on a subreddit called r/collapse. It is not happy reading, but everyone deserves the truth. You can check it out RIGHT HERE.
The pessimist in me believes it is already too late, that the damage has been done and there is nothing we can do to reverse our inevitable extinction. But the optimist in me still tries to find some hope. It’s not easy, in the face of the overwhelming evidence, but I try, anyway.
Here’s a clip from a fictional TV show, called The Newsroom, from 2014. At the time of broadcast, it was considered over the top, now it is seen as visionary. Please take 5 minutes to watch.
https://youtu.be/XM0uZ9mfOUI
Our denial over the impeding climate crisis is a bit like our denial of other existential threats in our lives. The easiest example of this, is our denial over death.
What do I mean?
I mean, we all know we are going to die. There is no cheating death, at least not yet. It is the only certainty. We can all expect to shuffle off our mortal coils, eventually. We don’t know when, we don’t know how, but we know one day, we will be gone. And somehow we put all of that out of minds and mostly live our lives with carefree abandon, day after day.
It’s the same with climate change. We put it out of our minds, we accept the gradual and dramatic changes, and we normalise them, quickly. It’s part of our in-built coping mechanism, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It’s how we get through every day. But our lack of attention to this detail, you know, that the entire planet is dying, only confirms our fate.
Ut oh.
I’ve been working as a journalist for 30 years, and I’ve been making the same joke in newsrooms for about as long. The joke is that I always hoped I would live long enough to be able to cover the end of the world. Funny, huh?
Now that I am confronted with the actual possibility (certainty?), I don’t seem to be laughing quite as much.
I don’t think the world is going to suddenly end, that’s not what I mean. The planet will still be here, but it will rapidly become inhospitable to almost all life. There may be some bacteria, or perhaps some of the extremophiles will survive, but you can say goodbye to all the plants and animals.
We’re animals, in case you need reminding, so that means bye-bye us.
Gosh, this started out being about me marking my dual nationality, and our global commonality, and somehow it lead me to the climate crisis.
Everything leads back to the climate crisis. It is the existential threat to all of our lives. And it might already be too late.
In that context, my 50/50 day, is pretty insignificant, but I marked it anyway. We all need distractions, even if it is a distraction from the end of the world.
Have a nice day!
PS – If you found any of this upsetting, you are not alone. Check out r/collapsesupport for help with coping. You are NOT alone. Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together.
The northlondonhippy is an anonymous author, online cannabis activist and recreational drug user, who has been writing about drugs and drug use for over 15 years. In real life, the hippy is a senior multimedia journalist with over 30 years experience of working in the industry.
The hippy’s book, ‘Personal Use’ details the hippy’s first 35 years of recreational drug taking, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
You can also find the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy
These are the shocking results of a newly released study linking tea drinking with crime and mental illness: A staggering 98.6% of all murders, rapists, and muggers drink tea! And even more startling, the same percentage of people who develop severe forms of psychosis also consume this pernicious beverage.
This landmark study, funded by ATG (Avoid Tea Group) was conducted over 10 years by a very respected research group based at the King of Fools College in South London and their affiliated organisation, Truly, Madly, Deeply (TMD) Hospital.
(Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but the ATG is funded by the coffee industry.)
Lead researcher, Dr. I.H. Atedope, has dedicated his life to proving the link between mental illness, violence, crime and the consumption of home brewed, street tea, said this at the launch of this report,
“The link between severe mental illness, violent crime and home brewed tea has been confirmed by this research. Nearly every person we have studied in the last 10 years, has consumed tea. And I am talking about street tea. English Breakfast, Earl Grey, or Oolong, it is known by many names, but its effect on behaviour is profound.
We have seen a sharp increase in street tea consumption in the last several decades, and while rates of violent crime and levels of psychosis have remained steady, we are certain that street tea drinking is behind the fact that the United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of mental illness in all of Western Europe. Coupled with the recent alarming rise in violent crime, the obvious connection between tea and everything bad, is undeniable.
Poverty, austerity, and a lack of opportunity have nothing to do with this. Trust us, we’re scientists! It’s the tea!
(Pointing at slide projected on screen behind him) Look, it’s on a pie chart, you can’t be any clearer than that.”
It should, because this is practically word for word, what ends up on the front pages of our national newspapers, a few times a year, only substitute the word cannabis for tea.
Think about your reaction, reading all of that, about tea. But, but, but, you say, you’ve been drinking tea your entire life, with no ill effects, so this is not even remotely, slightly true. nor could it be.
Guess what? That’s exactly how experienced cannabis consumers react when we read made-up scare stories about cannabis causing psychosis.
Cannabis does not cause psychosis any more than drinking tea could.
Cannabis, or rather certain strains or components, are actually beneficial to many health conditions, including psychosis and other mental illnesses, but because of decades of silly, pointless prohibition, science is falling behind the truth.
There is an institutional bias against cannabis, especially from certain groups and organisations, which means they decide the direction and result of their studies in the planning stages, and interpret the data, to support their predetermined conclusions.
It is a unique obsession here in the UK, but they are trying to spread this nonsense around the world. And it is working, as prohibitionists point to cannabis studies done in the UK as evidence that cannabis causes psychosis.
British drug expert supreme, Professor David Nutt, explains that cannabis use is misrepresented in the UK, saying
Professor David Nutt is a hero
“This fear of cannabis-induced psychosis is a particularly British one, largely because it has received significant support from UK academics. However, the evidential base is weak…”
I have no doubt that there is a a correlation between cannabis and mental illness, as I know from my own personal experience that cannabis is extraordinarily beneficial to relieving many of the symptoms.
But correlation does not equal causation, as noted drug experts, Dr. Carl Hart and Dr. Charles Ksir, are at pains to point out repeatedly. Here’s a long extract from a piece they contributed to the Guardian in January 2019:
“Does marijuana cause psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, and do associated symptoms like paranoia lead to violent crimes?
As scientists with a combined 70-plus years of drug education and research on psychoactive substances, we find [these] assertions to be misinformed and reckless.
It is true that people diagnosed with psychosis are more likely to report current or prior use of marijuana than people without psychosis. The easy conclusion to draw from that is that marijuana use caused an increased risk of psychosis, and it is that easy answer that [prohibitionists have] seized upon. However, this ignores evidence that psychotic behaviour is also associated with higher rates of tobacco use, and with the use of stimulants and opioids. Do all these things “cause” psychosis, or is there another, more likely answer? In our many decades of college teaching, one of the most important things we have tried to impart to our students is the distinction between correlation (two things are statistically associated) and causation (one thing causes another). For example, the wearing of light clothing is more likely during the same months as higher sales of ice-cream, but we do not believe that either causes the other.
In our extensive 2016 review of the literature we concluded that those individuals who are susceptible to developing psychosis (which usually does not appear until around the age of 20) are also susceptible to other forms of problem behaviour, including poor school performance, lying, stealing and early and heavy use of various substances, including marijuana. Many of these behaviours appear earlier in development, but the fact that one thing occurs before another also is not proof of causation. (One of the standard logical fallacies taught in logic classes: after this, therefore because of this.) It is also worth noting that 10-fold increases in marijuana use in the UK from the 1970s to the 2000s were not associated with an increase in rates of psychosis over this same period, further evidence that changes in cannabis use in the general population are unlikely to contribute to changes in psychosis.”
Yet, in the face of this evidence, these false claims about cannabis continue to be newspaper headlines that dominate the news and people’s consciousnesses.
At best, the science is unclear, and I am being extremely generous with the truth in saying that. But at the worst, all of this is being exaggerated and misrepresented so that users can continue to be demonised and criminalised for absolutely no good reason. It is a tragedy that flawed 20th century thinking is being dragged into the 21st century to cause more misery for millions.
Cannabis isn’t for everyone. Luckily, there is no mandatory programme to force anyone to use it. Thank god, because that means there’s more for me.
It also means if it doesn’t agree with you, you don’t need to have any. But for the sweet love of god, let the people who do need it, or enjoy it, to do so, safely and without the threat of arrest.
I started smoking weed when I was 18 years old. I didn’t know it at the time, but my use was medicinal, even then. I’ve used it effectively to treat my anxiety and depression for nearly 40 years. It’s helped me with back pain, it’s helped me with other ailments. It is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. That’s not a quote from me, but from a former DEA judge in America. You can find the full quote in my book, “Personal Use”, which is available from all good retailers online and in real life. (This has been a promotional message from the northlondonhippy.)
One of the biggest problems is trying to fight decades of misinformation and lies. People have been force-fed bullshit about weed their entire lives, so when presented with the truth, many don’t know what to believe.
My authority comes from my own personal experience, nearly four decades of personal use of this wonderful plant. I’ve grown it, smoked it, vaped it, ate it, and written about it extensively for over 15 years. Once I even I plugged it up my butt. OK, that last one is a total lie, but the rest, hand on heart, is true.
Cannabis is not the problem. Cannabis is the solution. Whether you’re denying epileptic children their medicine, or stopping responsible adults from having a choice of relaxing intoxicants, the prohibition of cannabis, which was built on a foundation of lies. is a cruel, uncaring policy, that needs to change.
So let’s change it!
The public support a change in our archaic drug laws, science and medicine support a change in the laws too. Even the police would like to see a sensible change to the law. It is only our impotent politicians who are preventing this sensible move.
From creating a new legal industry, with many new jobs, to helping our nation become healthier, legalising cannabis is a win/win for everyone, but it is especially a win for people who are being needlessly criminalised because they consume a plant.
The case for decriminalising and/or legalising is crystal clear. However, the forces of evil that are aligned to keep it prohibited won’t give up easily. Neither will we. Those of us who fight tirelessly to “free the weed” won’t give up either. And unlike the other side, we have all that is right, moral and good behind us. And because of that, we will prevail!
UPDATE:
Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this piece, this story popped up:
Study: Cannabis Use Not Independently Associated With Psychosis In Young People
Thursday, 02 May 2019
Logroño, Spain: Adolescents’ cannabis use history is not an independent predictor of an elevated risk of psychosis, according to data published in the journal Adicciones.
Investigators affiliated with the University of La Rioja in Spain explored the relationship between psychotic-like experiences and cannabis use in a representative sample of over 1,500 Spanish adolescents.
They reported that initially identified associations between cannabis use and psychosis were no longer present once researchers controlled for confounding variables, such as socioeconomic status, alcohol use, tobacco smoking, and comorbid psychopathology.
Authors concluded, “In this study, it was found that after controlling for the effect of the multiple relevant co-variables, the use of cannabis was not related to the frequency and distress associated with psychotic experiences reported by adolescents. … These results suggest that the relationships established between psychotic-like experiences and cannabis are complex and mediated by relevant variables.”
The northlondonhippy is an anonymous author, online cannabis activist and recreational drug user, who has been writing about drugs and drug use for over 15 years. In real life, the hippy is a multimedia journalist with over 30 years experience of working in the industry.
The hippy’s book, ‘Personal Use’ details the hippy’s first 35 years of recreational drug taking, while calling for urgent drug law reform. It’s a cracking read, you will laugh, you will cry and you can bet your ass that you will wish you were a hippy too!
“Personal Use” is available as a digital download on all platforms, including Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. The paperback is available from all online retailers and book shops everywhere.
You can also find the northlondonhippy on Twitter: @nthlondonhippy – follow him and receive a free gift*)
