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> Drugs and gardening

Richard Jones, iMagineer-in-Chief // 28 December 2006

Whatever the clichés, Rock 'n' Roll iMaginations has no interest in the whole recreational drugs debate. People make their own choices. But by a strange accident my Christmas has been dominated by a compulsive read called "Growing out of Trouble" by the BBC gardener Monty Don. (It's also been on BBC television).

The basic premise is this - take a bunch of crack and heroin addicts, get them working on a farm alongside celeb gardener Monty Don and hope to rehabilitate them from crippling addiction. I couldn't give a flying trowel about the gardening and farming stuff. There is also a bit too much "And then I bought some bread and a few parts for the rotovator" detail. But the human story at the core of this book packs a real emotional punch. The horror and pointlessness of the addictions is hammered home - by the addicts themselves. The only pleasure they seem to get out of it is some misplaced romance and mythology around the drugs jargon and paraphernalia, plus some temporary release from their domestic and social strife. Not much consolation for a broken life, no prospects, criminality and chronic health problems (abscesses, stomach ulcers, constant vomiting, teeth falling out and an alarmingly casual attitude towards amputations).

It is an amazing and, erm, addictive read. That may sound ghoulish, but the book is really about human spirit and adversity. The people involved are not "professionals" (apart from the probationary bods on the edges). There is an honesty and rawness to the confusion as they struggle to understand each other's very different worlds and crack (pardon the pun) the endless cycle of drug abuse and criminality. The lurking presence of Class As alongside weeding and cultivation methods is weird. But the basic fact comes through loud and clear : these are people fed up with the wasteland of their lives and what they really crave is normality. It certainly gives a new perspective on the media storm around cartoon crack addicts like Pete Doherty. I've seen him go from the most thrilling gig I've ever witnessed (in a tiny Birmingham venue before the Libertines broke big) into a shambling wreck struggling to produce anything close to former glories. At least it now seems there is some hope of personal and creative rehabilitation, especially with The Blinding EP.

This is a book that you won't regret reading. For those of us who have have the misfortune to know or be affected by Class A addicts it provides a new perspective (and indeed, some technical knowledge) about the subject. Desperation and hope come together in quite an emotional sucker punch. The sad thing is many people "used to know" someone on Class As but they are now gone, another casualty along the way.

> The Monty Project

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