One
Direction faced mounting pressure to apologise yesterday as it emerged
they had inspired young fans to experiment with drugs.
Children
as young as 11 vowed on social networking sites to try cannabis for the
first time, saying one of the band members looked ‘hot’ in a video of
him smoking it.
The
pledges by youngsters to copy the boys came as fans and parents tried
selling their tickets for upcoming gigs online – for half the face
value.
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Anger:
Critics have urged One Direction's two members to apologise after children praised the 'joint' video
Viagogo,
the world’s largest ticket marketplace, saw a 79 per cent spike in
people trying to get rid of the tickets in the 24 hours after the
footage emerged.
Tickets
for the majority of the concert venues – including Wembley stadium and
Manchester’s Etihad stadium were being sold for as little as £24, with
reduced tickets also available on sites such as Gumtree.
Last
night drug campaigners reacted with fury after the boy band still
refused to say sorry, despite calls from fans, parents and politicians.
One
charity branded the stars ‘stupid young men dicing with death’ and said
it was ‘horrendous’ they had not yet apologised or showed any remorse.
Just
hours after the Daily Mail’s website published footage of Louis
Tomlinson, 22, and Zayn Malik, 21, smoking a ‘joint’ before performing
in South America last month, they were back on stage in the UK.
On Wednesday they played the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, on the first leg of a two-week tour.
Tomlinson
appeared tired and weary on stage – having allegedly struggled to sleep
since the fallout – but he showed no signs of regret to the thousands
of screaming young girls in the crowd.
No remorse: Tomlinson and Malik on stage in Sunderland on Wednesday at their first appearance after the video
Damaging: Zayn lights up a 'joint' as he and Louis
Tomlinson are driven to their gig in Lima, Peru last month
Malik barely said a word during the 90-minute show.
After
seeing the footage, fans began tweeting using the hashtag
‘#zouispassmethatblunt’ – an amalgamation of the boys’ names followed by
another term for a ‘joint’.
One fan wrote: ‘I just turned 11 and idk [I don’t know] what a blunt is but I wanna [sic] smoke it #zouispassmethatblunt.’
Another added: ‘I know that marijuana isn’t good for us … but damn I want to try smoking weed with them.’
A Twitter user called Anthika wrote: ‘Zayn smoking weed is hot. I wanna try weed one day …’
But
despite the Mail yesterday making the band aware of the potentially
harmful effect their actions have had on young fans, a One Direction
spokesman said their only comment was still: ‘This matter is in the
hands of our lawyers.’
Lucy
Dawe, of charity Skunk Sense, told the Mail: ‘They’ve got these young
people that are hanging on to every word they say and instead of showing
them how to behave, they are being the worst role models they could
possibly be and encouraging young people to do something that could
seriously damage their health.
Enraged: Parents tried to sell of their
children's tickets for the upcoming One Direction gigs for as little as
£15 - half the face value - after the now infamous 'joint' video was
published, ticket giant viagogo has said
‘It
is absolutely devastating. The young girls have absolutely no clue of
the dangers of cannabis. They are stupid young men, dicing with death.’
A
number of £30 seats at the band’s Sunday show in Manchester were
offered for £15 online and a £42.50 ticket for Wembley was advertised at
£24. A seller on Gumtree had listed their ticket for £0 and asked for
someone to make an offer.
A Viagogo spokesman said many ‘bargain’ tickets were now on sale at ‘half the box office price’.
StubHub,
a ticket re-sale firm owned by eBay, yesterday said there were 4,000
One Direction tickets available on the site. Many of the band’s young
admirers turned on their former idols by posting photos of themselves
ripping or burning their tickets.
Half
an hour before the Sunderland gig this week, band member Liam Payne
tweeted: ‘Right everybody concert times lets try and keep the pg rating
for Christ sake somebody help me restore sanity.’
Fellow
member Harry Styles was said to be furious with Tomlinson and Malik. A
source told the Sun: ‘Harry is annoyed … [he] thinks it was a stupid and
reckless thing for Louis to allow to be filmed in the first place.’
Former Barcelona
captain Carles Puyol has retired from the game and will take up a new
role at Camp Nou next season, the Catalan club announced on Friday.
I want to stay and to continue to
develop the team and the club. I think I can do that and the club shares
the same view so I will of course put full commitment in to try to do
it.
on his new contract showing the faith the club has in him…
Arsène Wenger has signed a new contract with Arsenal.
Marco Reus has stressed that Germany will be wary of matchwinner Cristiano Ronaldo when they face Portugal in the World Cup.
Filippo Inzaghi is ready to replace Clarence Seedorf as AC Milan coach if the club decide to sack the Dutchman.
Uefa has ordered the partial closure of the Santiago Bernabeu for one match following racist behaviour by Real Madrid fans during the 1-0 Champions League win over Bayern Munich in April.
