Do You Suffer from Equasy??

According to Professor Nutt (real name…honest!) chairman of the British Home Office’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, “There is not much difference between horse riding and ecstacy.”  (a widely used recreational street drug).  In the article, titled “Equasy: An overlooked addiction with implications for the current debate on drug harms”, Prof Nutt wrote that “equasy“, short for “Equine Addiction Syndrome”, had caused 10 deaths and more than 100 road traffic accidents a year.  Through hunting, it also led to “gatherings of users that often are associated with these groups engaging in violent conduct.”  He said:  “Making riding illegal would completely prevent all these harms and would be, in practice, very easy to do”.   (WHAT!!??)  His point is why does society tolerate – indeed encourages – certain forms of potentially harmful behavior but not others, such as drug use.  (Oh, come on, Prof Nutt!! …well, ok, but couldn’t you have used bungee jumping or hand-gliding instead of horseback riding??!!)

I think I’ll take tomorrow off from work…I feel a bad case of equasy coming on…

Advertisement