Column: A Life Of Cocaine Or Cake

Even though we may look at a person’s habit or behaviour and not agree with their chosen vice, who are we to judge?

by Callum Joseph | 13th April 2013

A vice is just like facial features, we all have them. Whilst some may bite their nails down until they bleed, others enjoy cigarettes and produce smoke like a house on fire. Surely we should appreciate each others differences and just learn to not force our views on others?  From a young age my Nan was an important person in shaping my character. Both my parents smoked and my Nan would provide a selection of leaflets to slowly give them. How can anyone refuse advice on smoking from a cute five year old? Either way, it worked. My Nan had judged my parents vice and through the use of children eventually got them to quit.

My Nan also taught me about addiction to drugs and would always set up a scene where a 'friend' was in the school toilet telling me to smoke some marijuana and I would politely repeat - “No thank you. Please make your own decisions but I refuse”. As I got older it turned into the pub toilets and at eighteen she still made me repeat my refusal to ensure I had practiced enough and wouldn't become addicted to drugs.

“I want to be president someday, so I have not smoked marijuana. I ate a brownie once. At a party in college. It was kind of indescribable really. I felt like I was floating. It turns out that there wasn't any marijuana in it, it was just an insanely good brownie”

- Leslie Knope.

Whilst enjoying the scene of London, a friend soon became bored of weekends following the same routine and meeting the same faces and made the executive decision to move away towards a different atmosphere. I am non-judgmental and also a bit 'happy-go-lucky' when it comes down to making changes and adapting.

Enjoying the drinks and music of somewhere new I disappeared to a toilet to relieve my child sized bladder. During this, a gentleman climbed over the locked door, pulled a small bag of cocaine out of his pocket and offered me some. I was not down for this, I once sniffed pepper to sneeze like in a Tom and Jerry sketch. It made me nose itch and I wanted to cry for days after from the burning feeling. With this in the back of my mind I repeated my Nan's line and proceeded to make line for the bar and back to the comfort of my friend.  My friend brushed off the incident and pointed out that most of the people attracted to the club in question where there for the recreational use of drugs. I then made my own executive decision to remove myself from the social circle and opted for an addiction of comedy shows and cake.

I embraced a new life being single and looking for cake whilst my friend enjoyed the rush of drugs. He recently admitted his problem with an addiction that seemed fun at the time. It makes me wonder if I would have achieved everything positive in my life if I had crumbled in the toilet cubicle and said 'yes'.

My point is, who are we to judge the vices others place upon themselves when we all have our own that we either know and enjoy or are unaware of?