Doctor James Bell from London’s Maudsley hospital said that licensing drugs such as mephedrone rather than criminalizing them will ‘save lives’, this week, after 100 deaths in the last 2 years were linked to the recently criminalized drug.

“Well-adjusted people, people in good jobs, want to use drugs,” Dr Bell, head of the party drugs clinic at the hospital, told the Standard.

“People will always want to buy them. There should be some form of licensing of drugs so we know exactly how they are being manufactured and what’s going into them. Aside from being the safer option, regulation will also demystify drugs,” he added (Standard: http://bit.ly/s7nnr4 )

His comments appeared just as reformed party animal Fatboy Slim spoke euphorically of the natural highs he now finds from DJing, after quitting alcohol in 2009.

The superstar DJ/ pop star confessed to feeling terrified the first time he performed after cleaning up, admitting ’it was two or three gigs before I could dance. My hips wouldn’t do it’ though said he now enjoys ‘a completely different buzz’.

“In rehab they taught me about euphoric recall,” he told the Sunday Mirror, “When I’m in a situation where everyone is ­‘having it’ I have memories of the past coming back to me. I get a natural high from remembering those times.” (Sunday Mirror: http://bit.ly/uTMOOP )

Ironically, rehab experts such as acclaimed substance abuse author Terence T Gorski, highlight euphoric recall as a danger sign for users relapsing, at least for those previously addicted to cocaine.

“Euphoric recall is a way in which cocaine addicts ‘romance the high’ by remembering and exaggerating the pleasurable experiences of past cocaine use, while blocking out painful and unpleasant aspects of the memory,” the author of Staying Sober) explains on his website.

“Dismantle Euphoric Recall,” he instead recommends.

“Carefully examine past pleasant memories about cocaine use and search for the hidden negatives in the experience. Most people find that they had no purely positive experiences while using cocaine.  There were always hidden negatives.” (http://bit.ly/rLEftX )

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

Lonely Planet Bali expert Ryan Ver Berkmoes warned this week that virtually every drug dealer in Bali could be working with the police, as a 14 year old boy remained in jail after being busted with pot.

“You just shouldn’t (have anything to do with) drugs in Bali, period,” the US based author told the Australian newspaper, “because you can’t trust the people who would sell them to you.”

He also issued an uncompromising warning about having anything to do with local cops generally.

“You just don’t want to be involved with them — there is just no upside,” he stressed. “Anytime I’ve seen something happen where you think, oh, we should call the police, the first thing locals and expats who know the place say is don’t call the police”, he warned. (The Australian: http://bit.ly/qihvdZ )

The dangers of dabbling were emphasized by the example of Australian psy-trance legend Nick Taylor, who in 2007 spent several months locked up in Kerobokan jail after being caught with a tiny amount of cocaine when police raided an after-party he was attending.

http://bit.ly/r7MakI (Lonely Planet; Bali; “You can expect to be offered pot, ecstasy, shabu-shabu (methamphetamine), crystal meth (yabba), magic mushrooms and other drugs in nightclubs, beaches and while walking along tourist-area streets.

Assume that such offers come from people who may be in cahoots with the police. That some foreigners have been able to buy their way out of jail by paying enormous fines (US$50,000 and up) should indicate that nabbing tourists for drugs is a cottage industry. It’s also worth noting that clubbers have been hit with random urine tests . . .’)

PrisonTalk; forum: http://bit.ly/ntzpsi (‘Christopher Parnell can do more than imagine the prison fate that may await Australians held in Indonesia over drug offences – he knows it well. Mr Parnell spent 11 years in some of Indonesia’s worst prisons, for drug offences he says he did not commit.

From his arrest in 1985 when he was 32, he was beaten, starved and tortured in jail. He spent four years in solitary confinement. For three-and-a-half months he had his hands shackled behind his back. He lost his gall bladder, spleen and left eye in an attack and says he ate cockroaches and human flesh . . .’)

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff