I was no stranger to the world of substances. As a teenager, popping a pill and experiencing all the usual letters of the alphabet, I have to say I had some of the best times of my life. Looking back, I often wonder how different the world might have been without that influence. In London, at the fruitful age of seventeen, I was one of London’s best female impersonators, working at Heaven nightclub when Sir Richard Branson owned it. I was no stranger to a pill or the other formalities that...

Friendship, at its best, is a lifeline. It’s the quiet voice that steadies us when we’re spinning out of control, the hand that reaches through the fog when we can’t see the danger ahead. For me, that lifeline was Emma. And for years, I ignored it. When I recently reconnected with Emma after a long silence, I was struck by how cautious she seemed. Her warmth was still there, but it was tempered by hesitation, as though she wasn’t sure whether I was truly the same person she once knew. That...

Chemsex – the use of drugs like GHB/GBL, crystal meth, and ketamine to enhance sexual experiences – has become a hidden crisis in the UK,...