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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/20/xxxtentacion-brutal-life-problem-uk-drug-policy
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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
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| XXXTentacion’s brutal life points to the problem with UK drug policy | XXXTentacion’s brutal life points to the problem with UK drug policy |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| The smell of London in the summer is the smell of weed. Or whatever the groovy name for it is now. In the street, in the park, on the bus. It’s just there while the government, in its own alternative reality, argues over the legislation of cannabis oil for severely ill people. Even William Hague, hardly a Cheech & Chong devotee, argues for the legalisation of cannabis, full stop. Current drugs policy, as he said, is “inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date”. I agree, even though I know skunk-induced psychosis is real. All of drugs policy and much drugs education is totally out of whack with what is actually happening. | The smell of London in the summer is the smell of weed. Or whatever the groovy name for it is now. In the street, in the park, on the bus. It’s just there while the government, in its own alternative reality, argues over the legislation of cannabis oil for severely ill people. Even William Hague, hardly a Cheech & Chong devotee, argues for the legalisation of cannabis, full stop. Current drugs policy, as he said, is “inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date”. I agree, even though I know skunk-induced psychosis is real. All of drugs policy and much drugs education is totally out of whack with what is actually happening. |
| Maybe his “personal demons” included the alleged beating up and imprisoning his pregnant girlfriend | Maybe his “personal demons” included the alleged beating up and imprisoning his pregnant girlfriend |
| This is prescription drugs, mainly Xanax, which are easy to buy. Many parents and schools have only just cottoned on to this subculture, though it is years old. It makes grim sense. If you are awkward, depressed, stressed, and want to take the edge off and zone out, especially when you are drinking, Xanax does the job. Call it self-medication. Still I see the boys and girls posing with gun fingers and “bars” or “bricks”, as Xanax tablets are known, on Instagram. | This is prescription drugs, mainly Xanax, which are easy to buy. Many parents and schools have only just cottoned on to this subculture, though it is years old. It makes grim sense. If you are awkward, depressed, stressed, and want to take the edge off and zone out, especially when you are drinking, Xanax does the job. Call it self-medication. Still I see the boys and girls posing with gun fingers and “bars” or “bricks”, as Xanax tablets are known, on Instagram. |
| A whole subgenre of music goes with all this. This old lady isn’t claiming to be au fait with it but I spent some time searching it out after realising how prevalent it is. Some is silly teen nihilism. “I wake up/ I throw up/ I feel like I’m dead”. And some of its slurry disconnection is entrancing. Cole Bennett, who directs many of the videos, is mega talent. The numbing dislocation of violence and misogyny is shocking. But what’s new is the emo/depressed side. The absolute fascination with short, painful lives. Always the brutality acted out on the bodies of “bitches”. They are choked, drowned, guns put in mouths. | A whole subgenre of music goes with all this. This old lady isn’t claiming to be au fait with it but I spent some time searching it out after realising how prevalent it is. Some is silly teen nihilism. “I wake up/ I throw up/ I feel like I’m dead”. And some of its slurry disconnection is entrancing. Cole Bennett, who directs many of the videos, is mega talent. The numbing dislocation of violence and misogyny is shocking. But what’s new is the emo/depressed side. The absolute fascination with short, painful lives. Always the brutality acted out on the bodies of “bitches”. They are choked, drowned, guns put in mouths. |
| “I put bricks on a bitch, 30 xans off her tits” as XXXTentacion slurred. He is dead now, shot at 20 in what looks like a robbery. Many of his teenage fans are in mourning. It’s a death of one of theirs. This is not music their parents know about. The cool people who listen to the same stuff as their kids? They exist but some stuff is not for them. Even in the world of Spotify and child-friendly festivals and the Young Fathers, it’s not to be. I don’t want it to be. | “I put bricks on a bitch, 30 xans off her tits” as XXXTentacion slurred. He is dead now, shot at 20 in what looks like a robbery. Many of his teenage fans are in mourning. It’s a death of one of theirs. This is not music their parents know about. The cool people who listen to the same stuff as their kids? They exist but some stuff is not for them. Even in the world of Spotify and child-friendly festivals and the Young Fathers, it’s not to be. I don’t want it to be. |
| For XXXTentacion made songs about depression and suicide and admired Kurt Cobain. Whisper it softly: Cobain wore dresses and was something of a feminist. XXXTentacion symbolised male violence and brutality, and had been charged with aggravated battery and witness tampering, yet was praised in death by Kanye West, who thanked him “for existing”. | For XXXTentacion made songs about depression and suicide and admired Kurt Cobain. Whisper it softly: Cobain wore dresses and was something of a feminist. XXXTentacion symbolised male violence and brutality, and had been charged with aggravated battery and witness tampering, yet was praised in death by Kanye West, who thanked him “for existing”. |
| So again the gooey sentimentality happens with these hard men. XXXTentacion was a troubled soul. Louis Theroux spoke of his “personal demons”. Maybe “demons” here is code for the alleged beating up and imprisoning his pregnant girlfriend for so long she needed surgery to keep an eye. Maybe “demons” is a word for allegedly holding a woman’s head underwater repeatedly until she almost drowns. Maybe “demons” is a word for allegedly torturing a woman by asking whether she wants a barbecue fork or a wire brush inside her. The alleged threat to kill the “jit” , the baby she was carrying. | So again the gooey sentimentality happens with these hard men. XXXTentacion was a troubled soul. Louis Theroux spoke of his “personal demons”. Maybe “demons” here is code for the alleged beating up and imprisoning his pregnant girlfriend for so long she needed surgery to keep an eye. Maybe “demons” is a word for allegedly holding a woman’s head underwater repeatedly until she almost drowns. Maybe “demons” is a word for allegedly torturing a woman by asking whether she wants a barbecue fork or a wire brush inside her. The alleged threat to kill the “jit” , the baby she was carrying. |
| Prescription drug addiction: government launches investigation | Prescription drug addiction: government launches investigation |
| So this brutal and brutalised young man is dead. Darkness was all he knew, maybe. The face tattoos show he wasn’t exactly going to conform. Lil Peep died last November from a suspected overdose of prescription drugs. Again the kids mourned. Another tormented genius has gone. New drugs and new music, perhaps. But the same old story. The torments are actually carried out on the broken bodies of women and gay men. “Troubled” masculinity kicks down, always down. Into the darkest places of all. | So this brutal and brutalised young man is dead. Darkness was all he knew, maybe. The face tattoos show he wasn’t exactly going to conform. Lil Peep died last November from a suspected overdose of prescription drugs. Again the kids mourned. Another tormented genius has gone. New drugs and new music, perhaps. But the same old story. The torments are actually carried out on the broken bodies of women and gay men. “Troubled” masculinity kicks down, always down. Into the darkest places of all. |
| • Suzanne Moore is a Guardian columnist | • Suzanne Moore is a Guardian columnist |
| Drugs | Drugs |
| First thoughts | First thoughts |
| Drugs trade | Drugs trade |
| Opioids crisis | Opioids crisis |
| Rap | Rap |
| Rape and sexual assault | Rape and sexual assault |
| Cannabis | Cannabis |
| William Hague | William Hague |
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