Lily Allen defends cocaine: I know lots of people who take it and are fine

Lily Allen has said she thinks the media makes too much of a big deal about the downside of drug use.

She told Word magazine recently that the media almost celebrates alcohol abuse but: “The only story is that drugs are bad and they will kill you - you will become a prostitute, a rapist or a dealer. But that’s not true.

“I know lots of people who take cocaine three nights a week and get up and go to work. But we never hear that side of the story.

“I wish people wouldn’t sensationalise it. Some people are just bad at taking drugs.”

Lily freely admits to having used a range of drugs during her wild teenage years but insists that she’s calmed down now - and life in the music business isn’t what it once was: “I got £50,000 for my first album and I sold a lot of records.

“Twenty years ago, I’d have been booked in at the Ritz with five grams of cocaine on my table and 10 bunches of flowers. Some new clothes. A chauffeur on 24-hour call.

“Now I’m lucky to get an Oyster card. I ask for a hotel in Paris and I get a two-star place in the eighth arrondissement on my own. I’m like: ‘Do you want me to get raped and killed?’”