Bono and the Edge Discuss Drug Use

March 1, 1997

"They make you think everything is great," Bono chimes in. "I don't think it's a big part of our music to be drunk, or out of it. We're out there enough as it is. Drugs only offer junk food transcendence. I wouldn't knock someone who uses them responsibly but I don't like to see people be a slave to anything. I'm in favour of the legalisation of all drugs except those which are chronically addictive, like heroin." 

"It all boils down to whether you can use drugs responsibly," says the Edge. "I don't know. 'Don't touch them' is the only way to avoid risk, but a government policy based on lies and shock tactics isn't working. Your generation was told that if you smoked a joint you would spontaneously combust. Everyone, including Clinton, found out that was not true. You must tell the truth, to be even allowed into the consciousness of a generation that is making up its own mind."