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Lily Allen: I Don’t Condone Drug Use
January 9th, 2009
Lily Allen’s recent interview with Word magazine has exploded into a PR nightmare for the UK singer, after the tabloids ran headlines claiming she condones the use of drugs.
During the chat, Allen was asked about the line ‘Everyone’s at it’ in her new song ‘The Fear’, which suggests that all walks of life are taking drugs.
“The point is there’s a lot of hypocrisy attached to drug culture,” she explains. ”Especially from the journalists who write about it as they’re all drug addicts and alcoholics. The only story is that drugs are bad and they will kill you. You will become a prostitute or a rapist or a dealer. But that’s not true. I know lots of people that take cocaine three nights a week and get up and go to work every day, no problem at all. But we never hear that side of the story.
“I have no statement to make,” Allen adds. ”I just wish people wouldn’t sensationalise this thing that just exists. Some people are bad at taking drugs. But some people are bad at driving and kill themselves and others that way. I don’t take drugs. I used to. But I get very anxious around people who are on drugs, because it reminds me of being a kid. I can spot the signs of people being a bit gakked up very quickly. It terrifies me. That’s why I took cocaine when I didn’t even like it. I felt like a lonely child when everyone else was doing it and I wasn’t.”
The UK tabloids ran with the story, claiming Allen was condoning drug use, while the British National Drugs Prevention Alliance stated, “When someone like Lily Allen makes these remarks she is only harming young people who will at some point in their lives have to make a decision about taking drugs. We already have a major drug culture in the UK and she is affecting that.”
The singer’s camp was forced to clarify her comments, releasing a statement saying:
“At no point [during the Word interview] does [Lily] say that drugs are a good thing or that she condones drug use. In fact, she says that ‘I can spot the signs (of people on drugs) and it terrifies me’… Lily Allen would like to state unequivocally that she does not condone illegal drug use and has every sympathy with individuals and families whose lives have been blighted by drugs.”
Photo courtesy of GQ.
