In the final instalment of this essay, Jay Cooper reflects upon life as an experienced drug user and harm reductionist who has come to terms with his ADHD and autistic spectrum condition, offering a framework for greater understanding.

Jay Cooper found his first foray into the narcosphere blocked by parents and police. But he was just waiting to turn 16, start college and leave home to deepen and extend his involvement. With maturity comes greater acceptance he will never be “normal”, and maybe “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

Following from part 1, Jay Cooper looks back on his adolescence, when everyone from family to school bullies seemed to agree he was somehow << different >>- and that this was a problem. With socially sanctioned paths to pleasure thus blocked, he beats a path toward the frontline…

In an essay promised at the end of our most recent Hot Topics conference last autumn, Jay Cooper takes on the hitherto neglected issue of how neurodivergence relates to drug use, and reaches back into his nineties childhood to begin sharing his own story.