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It' all very well this 'get tough' shit with drug
users. After all, it's not the government that has to do it. First in
the frontline is "Five-0". How happy are they with the shit,
a.k.a. Misuse of Drugs Act 1970, they've got to shovel?
Well we've had the Police Foundation Report
on the drug laws (Tony and Jack just said "do one"). We know the Association
of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) told Jack that mandatory drug testing
in police custody was a non-starter (Tony and Jack just said "do one").
That the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police wanted the government
to stop carrying on about draw. But Tony and Jack knew he was just smooching
up to Londoners in the early days of the job, so they didn't even bother
saying "do one." After all, if you're the Home Secretary, you never
know when you might need a copper in London. So they kept shtum and
ignored him instead.
And now here's another Dibble that's been ignored,
the Chief Constable of Cleveland. He and his Police Authority probably
got a letter from Jack's gopher saying "do one." After all, where the
fuck is Cleveland if you work in Whitehall? It's just another Northern
shithole. And, as for its coppers, well for a geezer what runs the Met
(the Home Secretary still has responsibility for the Met), they're "just
a load of wallies, chasing brollies."
But what Cleveland police have done to piss
off Tony and Jack is to put a document to their Police Authority in
which the Chief Constable Barry ("Bazza") Shaw suggested:
"There is overwhelming evidence in this country
to suggest that the prohibition-based policy in place in this country
since 1971 has not been effective in controlling the availability or
use of proscribed drugs. If there is indeed a'war on drugs', it is
not being won."
Bazza, you're bang out of order! Are you out
of your pointy blue helmet? The war on drugs must go on. Do you know
how many peoples' jobs depend on this conflict continuing? Have you
any idea how many people's parades you would piss on if we adopted a
sane drugs policy? "Get back in your box Bazza." Tony and Jack aren't
interested. There's no votes and no jobs in going "soft" on drugs. No,
what the punters want are politicians with a lob on politicos with attitude
and it's the job of "Five-0" to put that attitude into practice. Why
the fuck else do you think Tony and Jack gave the Drug Tsar job to a
dibble?
The big question though is how long will the
police be happy to play "Dibble in the Middle" in New Labour's "war
on drug users?" As Bazza says:
"If a sufficiently large'and apparently growing'
part of the population chooses to ignore the law for whatever reason,
then that law becomes unenforceable. A modern western democracy, based
on policing by consent and the rule of law may find itself powerless
to prevent illegal activity Ð in this case the importation and use of
controlled drugs."
How dare you Bazza? How dare you? Haven't Tony
and Jack always been good to you boys and girls in blue? Haven't they
always looked after you? The war must continue!
"We will fight them in the pubs. We will fight
them in the clubs. We will fight them in the playgrounds and in the
streets. We will fight them in the privacy of their own homes. And we
will never surrender" (or at least not until people threaten to vote
for a party with a rational drugs policy and then watch how fast we
change our minds).
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