Middle-class users could lose UK passports under Boris Johnson’s plans

Middle-class drug users could lose UK passports under Boris Johnson’s plans

( JB COMMENTS : THE G.D.P. ( Gross Domestic Product ) OF THE UK INCLUDES THE ILLEGAL DRUG TRADE AND PROSTITUTION - and yet they claim these to be illegal while accepting their income financially. What hypocrisy is this ??? )

Campaigners say government going backwards by targeting ‘lifestyle’ users of class A drugs with tough criminal sanctions

Boris Johnson told the Sun on Sunday he was seeking penalties for users of Class A drugs ‘that would actually interfere with their lives’.

Jamie Grierson

Middle-class drug users are to be targeted as part of a 10-year strategy to be announced by Boris Johnson’s government with a heavy focus on war-on-drugs-era punishment.

JB COMMENTS: ALCOHOL IS THE DEADLY PRODUCT THAT DESTRPYS LIVES, COMMUNIOTOIES AND FAMILOIES FAR MORE THAN EVER ALL THE ILLEGAL DRUGS PUT TOGETHER AND YET THE GOVERNMENT CONCENTRATES ON DRUGS WHEN ALCOHOL IS THE ONE THAT NEEDS ATTENTIUON TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF LIVES EVERY YEAR.

So-called “lifestyle” users of class A drugs face losing their passports or driving licences under proposals designed to target wealthy professionals who the government will argue are driving exploitative practices with their demand.

( UTTER BULLSHIT - AND ALCOHOL DOESN'T ??? How many beg, borrow and steal to get a drink... It destroys families ,business, social gatherings and anywhere someone cannot control their intake of booze and who get violent and abusive.,.. BOOZE NOT CANNABIS. ) Police officers will be handed powers to go through drug dealers’ phones and contact their clients with warnings about drug use in a bid to spook them into changing their behaviour. ( OH PLEASE - HOW DUMB OIS THAT )

The government’s 10-year drugs strategy will be published on Monday with a heavy focus on targeting users and suppliers, including gangs behind the so-called county lines phenomenon, which often sees young, vulnerable people turned into cross-country mules. As a chief constable, I’ve seen enough: it’s time to end the ‘war on drugs’ But drug reform campaigners have criticised the UK government for going “backwards” by embracing a criminal sanction-led approach while other countries and federal states are adopting more progressive approaches, such as legalisation of cannabis in Canada.

Some of the measures to be presented in the drugs strategy include:

Contacting clients based on drug dealers’ seized phones with a range of messages to discourage their drug use and direct them to getting support.
A commitment to dismantling more than 2,000 county lines and making thousands more arrests.
Investing up to £145m in the county lines programme, targeting the road and rail networks and protecting those exploited and supporting them to rebuild their lives.
Expanding drug testing on arrest – supporting police forces to test more individuals.
Developing out-of-court disposal projects to ensure those who misuse drugs face tougher consequences.
The largest ever single increase in investment in treatment and recovery, which is understood to be made available to 50 local authorities.

The announcement comes as drug poisoning deaths are at a record high, having increased by almost 80% since 2012. Hypocritical politicians prefer to let drug users die than admit policy is a failure Niamh Eastwood, executive director of thinktank Release, said: “While increased funding for drug treatment is welcomed, the focus on more punitive sentences for people who supply drugs is a continuation of a tired tough-on-drugs narrative, one that we have had in the UK for decades.

“This failed policy will do little to address the high rates of drug-related deaths, which over the last decade have increased year on year, with some of the highest rates in Europe.

“While New York announces the opening of drug consumption rooms, Germany moves to legalise cannabis, as many US states and Canada have already done, and over 30 countries have ended criminal sanctions for possession of drugs – Britain is going backwards, embracing a Nixon-style ‘war on drugs’ approach.”

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “Too often the government makes grand promises, but then fails to deliver or does the opposite. Drug use is up, serious violence is up, antisocial behaviour is up. More and more offenders are getting away with their crimes as overall prosecutions have plummeted. Any action from the government must be substantial enough to undo the damage they have caused.” JB COMMENTS: ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND VIOLENCE ARE UP. ??? - SO THE PANDEMIC HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT AND ALCOHOL IS NOWHERE MENTIONED ??? Shutting the country in for almost 2 years has nothing to do with anti social behaviour ??? Drugs are blamed as an excuse to NOT LOOK AT THE REALITY that ALCOHOL KILLS TENS OF THOUSANDS AND DRUGS - ALL ADDED TOGETHER, DO NOT EVEN MATCH 10%of what alcohol kills a year. FACT )

The government said it will publish a white paper in due course which will look at new measures to reduce demand and deter people from illegal drug use through “more meaningful consequences”.

“We need to look at new ways of penalising them. Things that will actually interfere with their lives,” the prime minister told the Sun on Sunday. “So we will look at taking away their passports and driving licences.”

He added: “What I want to see is a world in which we have penalties for lifestyle drug users that will seriously interfere with their enjoyment of their own lifestyles.”

The civil penalties will be modelled on sanctions already used against parents who fail to pay child maintenance and banning orders for football hooligans, the Sun said. Enlightened drug reforms are sweeping the US.

Why is Britain so far behind? The government announced in July it would establish a new unit to help end illegal drug-related illness and deaths, as the second part of Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs was released.

The first phase of the review, which was published in February, estimated there were 300,000 opiate or crack cocaine users in England, and about 1 million people had used cocaine in the past year.

Black’s review estimated that the illicit drug market in the UK was worth £9.4bn a year, but cost society more than double that figure in terms of health, crime and societal impacts. JB COMMENTS: How much does it cost the government in lost work time , deaths, the NHS etc. to alcohol abuse. Police action on weekends throughout the country concentrates on drunks - not drugs - and it is alcohol that is the main problem and NOT DRUGS.

More people die every year from GLUE SNIFFING - TEN TIMES MORE A YEAR THAN DIE FROM CANNABIS - AND WHERE IS THE MANIA, THE PANIC, THE HARRASMENT OF THOSE SELLING GLUE ????? How many families are destroyed because of alcohol - and all legal and 'in your fucking face' as soon as you enter a supermarket and MASSIVELY PROMOTED in time to get RAT ASSED DRUNK and ruin other peoples Christmas -

ALCOHOL. NOT DRUGS. The whole programme for alcohol and drugs is in need of a serious review by people who know the truth and not the BS we are being force fed.

John Bellamy