Remember Pastor Ted Haggard?

If you watched Richard Dawkins’ polemical C4 documentary, ‘The Root of All Evil?’ you certainly will – he was the rather intimidatory fundamentalist preacher who accosted Dawkins in the car park of his church and accused him of calling his ‘flock’ animals.

He’s also the latest high profile US preacher to pull a ‘Jimmy Swaggart’ after being forced to admit to buying ‘crystal meth’ (methamphetamine) from a male prostitute (who, incidentally, also claims that Haggard visited him regularly for three years to indulge his taste for ‘abomination’ – a claim Haggard denies. although admits to visiting the prostitute on one occasion for a massage).

Curiously enough, Haggard’s explanation for that portion of his conduct that he admitted to runs as follows:

“I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away. I bought it for myself but never used it,” the Rev. Ted Haggard said today to a reporter for KUSA who interviewed him as he was leaving his Colorado Springs, Colo., home. “I was tempted, but I never used it.”

He said he threw out the drug without using it.

All of which sounds rather implausible, largely because Crystal Meth is not really the kind fo drug one goes for if one is just a little bit tempted to give something a try. A spliff or two. maybe a wrap of speed or, if you’re feeling flush then a line or two of Charlie, sure I could buy that, but as a starter for ten, going straight for methamphetamine is akin to deciding that for your first alcoholic drink you like to give 140 proof Polish vodka a go. It’s just not the obvious choice.

Meth is seemingly, however, the drug of choice amongst urban gay men in the US – well those that choose to augment their sexual activities in such a fashion – largely because, by repute, it gives the use the same kind of feeling of ‘loved-up’ euphoria one gets from ecstasy plus an major amphetamine ‘buzz’ resulting, so its claimed, in state of ‘hypersexuality’.