Side FX

Hurrah! A holiday! I would like to go to the Notting Hill Carnival but it gets so crowded.
I remember the last year I went: I went with Marek Kohn, who was then a journalist but is now a serious author.
We watched a float drift by that was manned by a DJ and a bunch of clubbers who were quite clearly off their faces on Ecstasy. They were beckoning to us in slow motion, dancing with their hips rotating and with mindless smiles and vacant eyes. It was so funny that I decided that Ecstasy had been invented as a comedy drug for the non-using viewer, and I imagined the experiments by its inventor, building elements into the drug that would make people look stupid!
It's funny how many drugs appear to have built-in properties like this; having known more than my fair share of heroin addicts in the 1980s when I worked in a music industry press office, I noticed heroin's evangelising effect on its users, who can not stop themselves from telling everyone what a fantastic experience it gives them, and everyone really must try it. Very clever for an addictive drug!
I was sitting chatting to the lead singer of a well-known band one day, who I assumed to be a rational and down to earth fellow.
'Have you notice how everybody who takes smack tells everyone else what a fantastic drug it is, and how they must try it?' I asked.
'Yes', he said. I don't take it myself. However, I tried it once. It's the most amazing experience: you can't describe it. Amazing. You really ought to try it, you know'.
Hmmm.