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| Photo from Daily Post |
(Owain) Arfon Jones, Crime Commissioner of North Wales
Police, was elected to his post earlier this year. He was the Plaid Cymru candidate.
Nowhere in his various statements before and immediately after the election do
I recall his mentioning the subject of drugs.
Recently he has been in the news expressing the opinion that
cannabis should be legalised for medical uses. (Nobody is arguing against that
as long the NHS is in control.) Even more recently he has called for the legalisation
of all drugs to be considered.
A few years ago the same call came from former Chief Constable Richard
‘The Clown’ Brunstrom whose antics brought North Wales Police into disrepute. Perhaps
some influential person within North Wales Police is persuading his or her
seniors round to this point of view – someone with budgeting responsibilities
perhaps.
Legalisation of drugs would certainly save police forces a lot
of money (not that the taxpayers would get a refund). Legalisation of
everything would save them even more money and allow them more time to loll
around in canteens and sit yawning in police cars.
Some young people are being discouraged from getting into illegal
drugs because they don’t want to risk trouble with the law. Legalisation would
remove that deterrence, increase the number of users and increase the long-term
cost of care incurred by NHS and social services.
Police, having failed to enforce drug laws effectively, now wish
to pass the buck to other agencies.
Crime Commissioner Jones’ comments may well encourage drug
users and dealers and make the situation even more difficult in drug-blighted communities such as Rhyl West.
Plaid and ALL other parties should ensure their candidates are
open and honest with the public on highly controversial topics such as
abortion, illegal drugs, gay marriage, whatever. If they hold strong views (for
or against) we should be told before we cast our vote and not after.
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