The Public Safety Foundation
Our Founder commented on new data that revealed as few as one in seven caught with class A drugs are prosecuted for possession.
However, former police officer Rory Geoghegan, director of the Public Safety Foundation, and former No 10 adviser, said: “The rush to diversionary programmes that often minimise the consequences for bad decisions might seem administratively convenient for an inefficient and under-resourced criminal justice system but it lets down the individual user and those impacted by the health, environmental and crime problems that illegal drug use generates.
“Going soft on drugs doesn’t do anyone any favours. With many young people afflicted with serious mental health issues linked to their cannabis use, it should be obvious that we should be doing all we can as a society to deter and discourage illegal drug-taking.
“As many US cities are witnessing, removing consequences from drug-takers is the very opposite of a compassionate approach. It only exacerbates the issues – cementing, rather than alleviating, the misery they suffer and that is inflicted on local people.
“If we are to reduce drug misuse, we must ensure that those tempted to take illegal drugs face a more than minimal prospect of being caught, and that being caught carries personal consequences.”
Read the full article in The Telegraph here.
