So what's all the fuss about Katy French? So say the smart-asses in the media. I want to give them a few answers they won't like.

First, it is a long time since I felt so completely deflated as when I learnt of Katy French's untimely death last Thursday week. It is impossible for the people of her generation not to feel a kinship with her. You see, Katy's story, warts and all, is all of our stories.

Second, I suppose the most natural question to ask would be: Why would a beautiful, young, intelligent girl with a bright future jeopardise everything by snorting cocaine? The thing is that this question is redundant. The real question is, why wouldn't she?

You see, teenagers and young adults have no problems coming up with answers to questions, but the one sure thing is that at some stage in their lives, they will find themselves in a situation where they have to decide 'do I or don't I?' and when that time comes, what they need is is a head equipped with 'legitimate' reasons why they shouldn't.

What are the reasons that their parents would give?

Because drugs kill? But everyone knows that bar a few unfortunate exceptions that they don't. Every week in this country, thousands of young people take class A drugs casually. The prospect of it being fatal is not an issue. No wonder young people think: 'It will never happen to me'. Death is as remote as Pluto.

Because they jeopardise your future? But Ireland is now one of the richest countries in the world and we have one of the most alarming drug habits. Everyone knows someone who is successful, has it all and takes drugs casually at the weekends. "Everybody takes drugs." This may sound like flippant generalisation but it is an argument that I have heard a million times and from a million people. There is no point in highlighting for them the 'worst possible case scenario' because they see it as just that.

Because it's illegal? So is driving on an L-plate without a fully licensed driver with you. Come on, everyone does it and anyway the gardai are after the dealers.

Because I said so? If there is one thing that is clear in a teenager's mind, it's that their parents "don't know shit". If anything, saying this is an incentive to do the opposite.

Because your older sister never took drugs? Because it's too expensive? Because what would the neighbours think???

The thing is this: young people are optimists. They are still dreaming about their futures without the obstacles of hindsight and regret. They still have a very idealistic belief in their decision making. Their minds are open to mythologies that mature adults shy away from. Adolescents want to explore. Only with experience and the onset of fear do people strive to make things taboo.

There is no point in trying to make them stay away from so-and-so, the town junkie, because the world is full of so-and-sos. And unless you keep your kids locked up under the stairs, they are going to run into another so-and-so every time they go to a club or a party. It sounds funny but that it is the stone cold truth of it.

The thing is this too: taking drugs or not is not a question of good vs evil. It is a lifestyle decision, like whether to join a gym or the debating society, whether to work in advertising or volunteer for some charity work. Taking drugs defines how a young person sees themselves. Drugs are hip and dangerous (in the glamorous sense). They have somehow become a symbol of freedom.

Bill Clinton, the great hero of middle Ireland, smoked dope. George Bush is widely believed to have taken coke. And where did it

get them? Only to be President of the United States. Then there are the Beatles, Jim Jarmusch, Liam Gallagher and the countless Irish success stories who shall remain nameless. Even movies that show the hard side of drug abuse manage, somehow, to romanticise it. Who wouldn't want to be a young Jim Morrison? You see, the decision is theirs and theirs alone. In every aspect of life these days, young people are encouraged to make their own decisions. We spend fortunes in time and money trying to make sure that they have every last piece of information, every angle, before allowing them to make rational educated decisions for themselves.

If young people are being empowered to make their own decisions in every walk of life, then it should follow that they would empower themselves to make their own decision on drugs and this is what's happening. Whether we like it or not, it is a decision that they will have to make themselves and when faced with the decision on whether or not to take drugs, they simply don't have the necessary information to draw on.

We live in a virtual world where we put all kinds of efforts into stimulating the senses into making people feel that they have experienced something that they have not. We have video games where people travel through space, reality TV shows where people live on tropical islands for months on end, The Lord of the Rings; nine hours of believing in a world of hobbits and wizards. People feel the themes and emotions, even though they haven't experienced the reality.

Can't these techniques somehow be used to let teenagers experience the dark side of drug use; before they have to make the decision on whether it's something they need in their lives. We need to educate with hard medical facts but we also need to somehow simulate the depression, despair and anxiety which exist, not just in the worst case scenarios, but in the very lives that young people aspire to, and which are the real reasons to say 'no.'

The setting up of centres and drug awareness programmes certainly have their place, but this is a problem that needs to be brought right into the centre of the mainstream. It needs to be demystified, turned into something that everyone is a qualified expert on. I often wonder if Ireland has the stomach to face its problems and to ask the hard questions.

At least the Taoiseach, by sending his aide de camp to Katy French's funeral showed that he's not unaware that these tragedies matter to my generation. Isn't the problem grave enough that it merits two or three school hours a week and to do this consistently, not as some Micky-Mouse side show? Might it be a good idea to have a Leaving Cert paper on it, complete with the carrot of 100 points for an A1? It is surely as relevant in today's Ireland as home economics or business organisation was 20 years ago.

It all boils down to this. It is impossible to protect young people from exposure to drugs. There is no dynamic, socially, mentally or otherwise. So when the time comes and they are asking themselves 'why wouldn't I'? we need to make sure that they are looking at this lifestyle decision from every angle.

So let me ask again. What's all the fuss about Katy French? Because Katy French's death told us that the time has come to take our heads out of the sand and stop lying to ourselves.

Why was there such an outpouring of grief? I can tell you right now. Because the nation is as guilty as sin.

Katy French was not so much a victim of drugs, but a victim of a system which sees drug users forced to consort with criminals. She was also a victim of our refusal to face the thing we fear the most -- coming up with a coherent drugs policy. Above all, she was a victim of our distaste for thinking things through.

Here's the truth. As long as drugs are illegal, the crime lords will continue to make massive profits and to murder at will. Meanwhile, the guardians of morality say, "we will never legalise drugs, no matter what. No sirree" and every dealer in the country says, "Hallelujah. Long live the Free Market. Now I'll be able to afford that new gun".