BORIS

remember reading something in a motorcycle

magazine a while back . It made me grimace inwardly , and wonder , yet again , why people try and write about things they know nothing about . In this case , the author knew lots about riding motorcycles and nothing whatsoever about drugs , but was nonetheless trying to create a link between the two of them . His theory was that motorcycle-riding was the same as drug-addiction because ... um , well , it doesn ’ t matter what stupid attempt at equivalence he tried to draw . Because the two things are not at all the same . Which he would ’ ve known if he ’ d ever taken drugs . But he freely admitted he ’ d never done so , and so his article could be dismissed as the dross it was . I , however , have taken drugs . There was a time in my life when I was smoking dope and snorting disgraceful chemicals on a regular basis . I did not shoot heroin , primarily because I didn ’ t feel it would enhance my riding or partying , rather than being scared of needles and overdosing . I was all about the party drugs , me . Marijuana , methamphetamine , cocaine , and pills , all washed down with vast quantities of alcohol , was how things were for me and my bike-riding hooligan mates in the 80s and 90s . It was how things were for lots of mid-20s folks back then . Were we addicts ? Sure , some were . Some still are . Happily , I ’ m not now and wasn ’ t really then . Some people use drugs and never become addicted to them , just as some people drink alcohol and never become alcoholics . I moved on . But I view drugs through the same prism as alcohol , which in terms of social harm , health issues and general craziness , is several orders of magnitude worse than all of the illegal drugs combined . But I am not here to moralise . I only told you the above so that you would understand I know a fair bit about drugs , their effects , and how using them relates to motorcycle-riding . To say they are the same thing is a manifest nonsense . People do not take drugs for the same reason they ride motorcycles . The former removes you from reality . The latter enhances and immerses you in pure reality . That said , motorcycle-riding can be transformed by drugs . Now you ’ ll understand the police are all about Random Drug Testing at the moment . Interestingly , the legislation that drives this does not ever speak of “ impairment ”. It speaks only of the prohibited drug being present in your system . The drug-test administered by the cops on the side of the road does not measure how ruined you are on dope , speed or MDMA ( Ecstasy ). It just tells them there is a trace of it in your system . Which is against the law . I have a lawyer friend who desperately wants to find a client to contest a charge which involves

90 KIWI RIDER