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Good Morning, Drugs have been in the ether this week. A former chief constable has called for the de-criminalisation of Class-A narcotics to stop millions of pounds going to organised crime. The International Centre for Science in Drug policy declared the ‘war on drugs’ to be a failure, arguing that drug use be considered a public health issue rather than one of criminal justice. And with curiously apt timing the addictive television series Breaking Bad, in which a chemistry teacher becomes a drug dealer, reached its final episode. Sitting on my sofa, with a glass of wine, watching a middle-aged man’s life escalate into apocalyptic chaos owing to his involvement in the drug world, it’s easy to imagine these things are far removed from my comfy, supposedly non-addictive life. But part of the show’s appeal – as its title suggests – is the way it blurs the border between who is good and who is bad and shows that, at some level, we’re all addicts chasing one drug or another. Money. Real Estate. Nicotine. Sugar. There’s an unlimited supply of addictive substances available and our culture endorses an endless array. The show dramatises what the experts are saying, namely that the law can’t keep this beast it bay. There is a deeper issue at work, and it’s an issue we can all relate to. Addiction is defined as a state of obsession or pre-occupation that enslaves a person’s will and desire. The second letter of Peter puts it this way ‘a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.’ The psychologist, Gerald May, wrote that ‘to be alive is to be addicted.’ It’s mankind’s natural state. God, he argues, creates us for love and freedom but we fulfil a longing for him through objects of attachment. These attachments – or addictions - become little gods in which we put our faith. God knows, I have enough of my own. This TV series being one of them. I’ve had to hide the box-set to stop myself watching during working hours...