Mal Fletcher comments

Following in our wake, youthful Gen-Xers found themselves cast adrift on a sea of uncertainty. Their catch cry was "whatever"; hardly a cry revolution, more a sign of resignation. "I'm under too much pressure," they said, "Don't ask me what's right and wrong, there are too many choices. Just do whatever."

So, it's little wonder that many of the current Millennial youth generation are struggling to find any code of morality aside from what seems expedient at the time - or what feels good.

Interestingly, though, while a naively optimistic liberalism reigns supreme in Britain there are already, on mainland Europe, shifts in community attitudes away from overtly liberal values.

In Holland, for example, a growing crime rate and spiralling "sex and drugs" culture have forced authorities to clamp down in areas where public tolerance of drug use and prostitution has been high for many years.

In December of last year, authorities in Amsterdam announced that they would close half of the city's brothels and cannabis cafes because they are attracting organised crime, including human trafficking.

Dick Houtman, a sociologist at Rotterdam's Erasmus University said: "There is a feeling that our tolerance is the principal cause of many of the problems we experience now."

He added: "The debate is about where liberty and tolerance should end and where order should begin."

The Dutch situation reveals the danger an excessively liberal society poses for communities and cities.

The Myerson story suggests that excessive liberalism in society can leave a tragic legacy closer to home - for families and children. Liberalism preaches that I can do as I please so long as it doesn't "hurt anybody" or break any laws.

In saying this, liberalism faces two major problems. The first is that its definition of "hurting" is wide open to negotiation. There is, after all, more than one way to hurt a human being.

The pain caused by living out liberal ideals, especially in areas like drug experimentation, doesn't necessarily have to be physical. Deep psychological and emotional scars can be much harder to heal.

Studies are consistently showing that sustained cannabis use often leads to psychosis. This is especially true with the stronger varieties of the drug and the skunk which some kids are now using is far stronger than the marijuana university students experimented with 30 or so years ago. It contains 25 times the amount of tetrahydrocannabidinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient.

Recent reports suggest that record numbers of British teenagers now require treatment as a result of smoking skunk. Last year, more than 22,000 people were treated for cannabis addiction, most of them under the age of 18.

Whether or not the cannabis of today is more potent than that of 20 years ago is not the point. All forms of addiction are harmful. That our teenagers need any drug in substantial quantities, just to help them cope with life, is not a healthy sign. The scars of an "anything goes" are not always on the surface.