Drug users selling magazine in London ‘to fund habit’

A magazine which ‘legitimises fundraising for illegal drug use’ has been launched in London.

The magazine, called Illegal!, was started in Denmark and has been criticised as “ridiculous” and a “money spinner for drug addicts”.

The publishers say their “one basic principle” is that drug users should be decriminalised, claiming whether people take drugs is of “no concern to the police”.

Crime risks

The Metropolitan Police said the idea could lead to people “consuming more drugs with all the health and crime risks that poses”.

The magazine costs £1.50 and users sell it for £3.50. Its foreword states: “Everyone has a right to do with their body as they wish and, if that means a two-day acid trip in Camden or an ecstasy-fuelled night in Shoreditch, then so be it.”

Louis Jensen, who leads the London Illegal! team, claims that current drug policies do not work and that the magazine is “not necessarily there to create a revenue to spend it on drugs”.

Funding drug habit

He added, “you know nine out of the ten are probably going to spend it on drugs. There’s that real hope that the one in ten won’t.”

But Ian Simpkins, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “We would always wish to reduce crime and the generators for crime, which funding a drug habit often is of course.

“This initiative seeks to legitimise and formalise fundraising for illegal drug use which I’m not sure is the answer.

“There is always the risk here of funding and consequently increasing a person’s drug use to the point where the selling of the magazine no longer covers the cost or the initiative fails, so you’re back to square one, or worse because you’re now consuming more drugs with all the health and crime risks that poses.”

Frankly ridiculous

Speaking to the Daily Mail, one Londoner, Jake Furness, said: “The whole idea will just lead to a vicious circle of an ever-increasing dependency on drugs.”

He added, “to blatantly sell magazines which are designed to help fund the purchase of drugs is frankly ridiculous”.

And Debra Greaves said “this magazine is just a money spinner for drug addicts to get more drugs”.