Tuesday 29 November 2016

PASSING THE BUCK

Drugs
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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