Staggering home from the pub singing lewd songs and hiccuping may not seem like the pinnacle of evolved human behaviour.

Even those who enjoy a glass of Chardonnay now and again probably feel they are not doing much to advance humanity by matching their wine to their meat course.

But writer Stuart Walton believes the enjoyment of both alcohol and drugs is the expression of a fundamental human right.

As far as he is concerned, the right to express yourself, the right to a roof over your head and the right to live in freedom are all on a par with the right to get thoroughly legless.

Mr Walton has written a cultural history of intoxication called 'Out of It' and as a wine writer he admits he is qualified to talk about inebriation.

He said: "It is a biological, basic human urge to want to get intoxicated.

"It may not be as much of a biological imperative as the urge to eat, but it is right at the centre of our existence.

"There are no human societies anywhere in history, ever, that have lived without intoxication. It seems to be so deep, so much one of our instincts, that to try and ban it is (a) a denial of our birthright and (b) an enterprise doomed to failure."

Mr Walton, who lives in Walpole Terrace, Brighton, said even five-year-old children were driven by the desire to get off their heads.

He said: "You see these young kids spinning round really, really quickly because they are fascinated by that feeling of dizziness and want to know how it feels to escape ordinary consciousness."

The wine writer said the attempt by governments to prevent people exploring their right to intoxication was the cause of many problems.

He loosely advocates the decriminalisation of drugs and argues that drug addicts only suffer the same attachment to intoxication as alcoholics and cigarette smokers.

Mr Walton believes there will always be addicts in any society, but he says it is easier for governments to cope with addiction than it is with the crime and health problems that come with making intoxication an offence.

He said: "We've got to get away from the idea that people who use intoxicants are somehow a hidden sub-culture.

"It is all of us.

"I accept the majority of people will not have taken illegal drugs, but who has never smoked a cigarette, drunk alcohol or even had a cup of coffee?"

His book documents the different forms intoxication has taken in human society during the centuries.

They range from the Bacchanalian excesses of the ancient Romans to South American tribes ingesting hallucinogenic roots and plants and teenagers in the Western world inhaling from aerosol cans.

Although Mr Walton is a champion of intoxication, he seeks to explode the myth that most of the world's great art has been created under the influence of drink or drugs.

He said: "A lot of great art has been written or painted by people who have experienced intoxication. Kerouac wrote On The Road while he was on speed, for example.

"But we don't need to pretend that it makes us creative, any more than we need to pretend it makes us spiritual.

"Intoxication is some-thing that is worth doing just for its own sake."

The book, Out Of It - A Cultural History of Intoxication, is published by Hamish Hamilton and costs £12.99.