In an article in the Observer, Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, condemns the "coke-snorting fashionistas" for glamorising drugs, and the media as their "cheerleader and megaphone".
He writes: "One song, one picture, one quote that makes cocaine look cool can undo millions of pounds' worth of anti-drug education and prevention."

I'm not so sure. I reckon Mr Costa is doing his tarring with too broad a brush; the relationship between drugs and the cult of cool is not so simple.

Drugs are not cool in spite of being harmful; they're cool because they're harmful. And while images of coke-addled celebrities might make us less shocked by drug use, there are plenty of tragic cases that serve as a warning.

I won't be the only rock fan who, at the age of 28, was aware that he had survived longer than Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Hendrix.
And I don't buy the notion that kids think crack-cocaine must be okay because of its association with Amy Winehouse. The girl's a public health warning against the dangers of drug abuse.

And when the gossip magazines plaster their pages with pictures of her looking on death's door, they are not glamorising drugs, merely doing what they always do - appealing to their readers' prurience.
There is a dubious pleasure to be had in watching someone unravel through addiction. This can take on sinister forms, as in the case of websites offering prizes to those who predict the exact date of Amy Winehouse's death.

If Mr Costa wants us to change our attitude to drugs, he is onto something more promising when he highlights the damage wrought by the trade in the third world.
He traces the progress that smuggled cocaine makes through the continent, spreading corruption and violence and keeping Africans locked into poverty.
In Guinea-Bissaue, for instance, the value of the drugs trade may be as high as the country's entire national income.
Mr Costa writes: "A sniff here and a sniff there in Europe are causing another disaster in Africa, to add to its poverty, its mass unemployment and its pandemics."

(The irony is that the plight of Africa has become a tool for any celebrity looking to boost their right-on credentials, often through the UN.
As Rod Liddle points out, Robbie Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Angelina Jolie all share a history of drug abuse along with being UN goodwill ambassadors.)

Just as politicians seek to appeal to our consciences in their efforts to tackle climate change, so schoolchildren should be taught of the misery that drugs cause in the third world.
The traditional druggie's justification, "I'm not harming anyone but myself", doesn't ring true.

Seen in the wider context, snorting cocaine is not a cheeky transgression like a tequila slammer or a sneaked cigarette, but as morally contemptible as downloading child porn or clubbing seals.

Still, as long as drugs are illegal they will have a certain cachet.
A more effective solution would be for politicians to get serious about killing the drugs trade altogether by legalising the lot.
But that would take more political courage than anyone seems to have the stomach for at the moment.