For Pete's sake, there's no bigger bore than a druggie

Drugs are boring. They don't induce happiness and they don't make situations more interesting. They just help you have conversations with people who don't interest you, and have sex with people you don't fancy. Drugs are great for ugly people and morons but of no use to anyone else. Which is why Pete Doherty can't leave them alone.

Looking like an oily corpse and stupid enough to be blown away by ditzy uber-flake Kate Moss, it's no surprise he's become one of Britain's favourite junkies. And yesterday he was released from prison on a technicality, despite being in breach of his bail conditions and allegedly in possession of drugs.

Drugs are now so mainstream that taking them is as rebellious as leaving the loo seat up; but celebrities still make a show of their druggy antics, wanting us to know what subversive, tortured geniuses they are. Amy Winehouse won't be seen in public unless she's suitably trashed, hoping the media obsession with her addictions and hairstyle will prevent us from realising what a lame Aretha Franklin rip-off she is.

Doherty and Winehouse have achieved a level of fame that can't be justified by their talents. Doherty is an OK songwriter and Winehouse is a decent karaoke-standard vocalist: both have propelled themselves into the headlines and achieved fame through ostentatious substance abuse.

In modern Britain, becoming a junkie and looking like rotting garbage is a sure-fire way for any celeb to capture the public's attention. Like ogling the bad nose jobs and cellulite of the famous, watching them wilfully flush their lives down the pan has become another national compulsion.

We make a big fuss over famous druggies, regarding them as the victims of complex psychological and social problems. But junkies are the victims of nothing. They're just over-indulgent, self-absorbed bores with an infantile need for attention and instant gratification.

I have one friend with a drug problem and never show him any sympathy. I'm honest and tell him how tedious he is, unlike his fawning girlfriends whose mollycoddling has helped keep him an addict. He respects me for being straight and holding a mirror up to him.

Addicts need people to tell them how shabby they are in order to straighten out. Sentimentalising them, as we do with Doherty and Winehouse, only encourages them to carry on with their sad clown-acts - and sends them to the grave.