Lily Allen Defends Drugs

Continuing her preparation for a big comeback in 2009, Lily Allenwas spotted in the company of her bandmates earlier today in the Notting Hill district of London.

The “LDN” songstress looked to be having a wonderful time with her musician friends as they all took a lunch break from their studio session.

And though she’s struggled with drug and alcohol abuse in the past, it doesn’t seem that Miss Allen has yet come to terms with the dangers associated with substance abuse.

Lily recently told press, "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 sensationalize it. Some people are just bad at taking drugs."

She continued, "I felt like a lonely child, when everybody else was doing it and I wasn’t. That’s why I took cocaine when I didn’t even like it. I was brought up in a Catholic school and they told me gays, adultery and drugs were bad. All my mum’s friends were gay, my dad was having affairs and there were drugs in the house when I was a kid, so it was a bit cruel."

She also mourned the sad state of the recording industry these days. "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?'"

Gossip Girls

Enjoy the pictures of Lily Allen out with her bandmates in London (January 7).