"If you're over 70, you should be able to go and say, 'Just give me some diamorphine and I won't mither you any more.'"

Said John Cooper Clark, the "great punk poet," in this long and fascinating piece in the Guardian. The subject of opiates arose in connection with the years he lost to heroin addiction. He's asked if he misses heroin, and he says he does:

A lot of times I remember it as fabulous. But I can't do that and have the life I have. And I ain't gonna sink the ship just so I can feel a bit better. If I live 'til I'm 80, I fully intend to reacquaint myself with the world of opiate drugs. I think it's ideal for the elderly. It should be there for the asking.

In his heroin days, he lived with Nico — lived with, it wasn't sexual.

Ach, that's disappointing. He smiles and says that's everybody's response. "Who wouldn't like to think you were with one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world, official – and that was in the day of Brigitte Bardot and Julie Christie."

Did Nico ever make a pass at him? "Well, we were junkies so it doesn't really come up. It's not a physical world. It's just not a sex drug, heroin. You just don't get round to thinking about it." Do any junkies have an active sex life? "I've known it happen. Yeah, but not guilty. Ha ha ha ha!"

Here's a great documentary about the very beautiful and self-destructive Nico.

And here's an article about how hard the old folks are hitting narcotics these days.

In 2009, the American Geriatrics Society joined others in advocating for greater opioid use to treat chronic pain in seniors, especially those 75 and older....

So they're basically on the same page as the punk poet genius Clark.

Andrew Kolodny, a New York psychiatrist and addiction specialist, said the American Geriatrics Society guidelines were likely influenced by the panel's financial ties to drug companies and, as a result, they mistakenly recommended opioids over traditional, anti-inflammatory drugs.

"Finding prominent experts without these conflicts of interest isn't very hard," said Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing. "Looks like (they) didn't even try."

Drug dealing, a complex economic topic. Discuss!

Back to the Clark article:

In the past, he has proposed that, for National Poetry Day, all human affairs be conducted in rhyme, with the exception of the emergency sevices. But now he's decided there need be no exception. He grins. "You go to the doctors, the doctor says, 'I understand your question./ Now here is the answer./ It isn't indigestion./ You have stomach cancer.' To which you reply, 'My imminent estrangement/ has come as quite a shock/ I'll make the relevant arrangements./ Thanks for the information, doc.' What d'you think of that? It's good, isn't it? It could even bring a much-needed smile to the cancer sufferer's face."

And you're probably still wondering about the word "mither." It's a word going back to the mid-19th century, a regional word used in northern England, meaning — obviously — "to bother, pester, worry, irritate" (OED)("1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. 286   Them women's clack mītherd the poor chap tell 'e didna know whad 'e wuz sayin'.")