Can You Abstain From Something You’ve Never Tried?

I drank like a fish from 13 to 16. I skived school to go drinking and smoke the cigars I’d nicked out of my Dad’s desk. I was with my mates, we were kids, it was fun. We’d get pissed and set fire to stuff. I used to love drinks that would turn my piss or vomit interesting colours.

Then I got to 16, left school and stopped drinking. It was time to put away childish things like psychoactive substances. At 17, I joined my first revolutionary Trotskyist party. I was passionate and sober.

My abstinence is based on experience, not ignorance. I do worry slightly about people who say they’ve been edge all their lives. It’s like a virgin claiming celibacy.

But I don’t worry much because it’s their lives, their choices. Do what you want, fuck everyone else.