You see them at every away game making a terrific noise. But it is not just beer fuelling loutish behaviour on the terraces
When the football team I support, West Bromwich Albion, first got promoted to the Premier League 20 years ago, our first away game was at Arsenal and, within half an hour, we were three goals down. I was most fed up. At this point the unmistakable smell of cannabis wafted over us visiting supporters packed in the away end. The vibe was very much of the old TV adverts for Hamlet cigars, featuring people being calmed by smoking after experiencing various disappointments. I have barely touched drugs, but if I’d been offered a puff of something at that moment to take the edge off my pain, I might well have done so.
There is a school of thought that part of the reason football hooliganism fell out of fashion for a while was that stuff like cannabis and ecstasy became the fans’ drugs of choice. I’m told these substances are more about peace and love than hate-filled rampages. Alcohol, of course, is more about the latter than the former.
Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
