Solving The Drug Problem

Posted by Ken Marshall On It's now time to unseat the arrogant!

Call me old fashioned if you want but I believe that anyone who behaves from the viewpoint that supplying vulnerable people with chemicals that get them quickly addicted and then ravages and kills them for a profit, are the scum of the earth.

Drug dealers are a cancer that need to be cut out of our society now. This is something that should have been done decades ago. We are always hearing our politicians mouthing platitudes and wringing their hands while they deliver their well worn clichés.

“We are pushing as many resources as our budgets will allow to bring these terrible people to justice.”

But the vicious cycle of: drug dealing-create addicts-create crime to pay for drugs-drug dealers get richer-etc.etc. just goes on and on.

And when the police, usually with one arm tied behind their backs, bring them to justice, justice is found to be sorely wanting. Just ask the families of those who have been sucked into the dark evil world of the drug dealer.

This should be our first priority, to create a justice system that is consistent and actually just.

The politicians of the last twenty years have been negligent in their responsibilities in many areas and the drug situation is one of the worst. Mainly because it is so easy to put right.

If you do a Google search for ‘typical jail sentences for convicted drug dealers’ you will quickly see why our streets are awash with scumbag drug dealers.

No Deterrent Exists

I came across a news story that initially raised my hopes that things were starting to improve. The headline read; “60 Years In Jail For Drug Dealers.”

Great, I thought at last, this is being dealt with as it should. My raised mood was short lived as I read on and discovered that the 60 years was the accumulative jail sentences for all of the 26 gang members.

Yes I know, sickening isn’t it. That equates to less than three years apiece for selling cocaine and heroin on our streets. When you take into account that the time spent in custody awaiting trial is deducted from this and then take off time for ‘good behaviour’ and it all becomes just a bit of an inconvenience. Part and parcel of the job of drug dealer really. It’s pathetic!

This drug bust was hailed as a ‘huge success’. I don’t dispute the dedication, hard work and risks taken by the officers involved. All that painstaking effort and then to be let down by a justice system that seems to miss the point of its role.

Probably the most disappointing thing for me was the quote from the CID sergeant who worked on the case:

“Today marks the culmination of over a year’s work to remove those people from our communities who continue to spread drugs and exploit addicts.”

He went on, “I am really pleased with today’s result, and I hope it sends a clear message not only to other offenders but to the local community that we will continue to work hard to reduce drug dealing and the massive detrimental effect it has on people.”

The trouble is it’s a mixed message. I don’t believe any drug dealer is going to worry about the outcome of this drugs bust.

Yes the police worked hard. This bust must have cost a few hundred thousand pounds of our tax money. And all for what? So that a group of career criminals can have a paid for holiday for about 18 months before starting back in business.

It’s depressing when a drug dealer is caught, charged and brought before the courts for the Judge, who I thought was there in the role of protector of the law abiding majority,to then dish out pathetically inadequate sentences or to let them off completely.

Here’s a link to just such a recent story: Judge Spares Drug Dealer Prison For A Friendly Chat. You couldn’t make it up!

How To Remove Drug Dealing From Our Streets

This drug bust and others like it would have been a ‘huge success’ had our justice system delivered the appropriate punishment. In this case punishment and not rehabilitation.

The majority of drug dealers are not addicts. They feed off of the addicts that they supply. They wallow in the misery they create. They are in general sociopaths. Maybe they were just born that way, or maybe they just don’t give a toss about anyone else.

They trade in death and destruction. They profit from the agonies of loving families. They are violent. They enjoy what they do. This is totally unacceptable behaviour and it needs to be punished accordingly.

If I had my way drug dealing would carry a minimum term of life in jail. No parole. Get done for drug dealing and you ain’t coming back out.

And absolutely no reduction for so called good behaviour because the good behaviour nonsense just doesn’t wash with me.

This good behaviour they use to reduce a criminals time behind bars is the behaviour that is happening where it doesn’t count, in prison. I don’t give a damn how well they behave in a controlled and guarded environment.

They are there to serve time for the crime they carried out in free society. Had they not committed the crime they wouldn’t be in jail to have their behaviour judged. What nonsense.

Real Deterrents Work

Imagine if everyone convicted of drug dealing was taken off the streets and kept off. Once people began to see that this zero tolerance to drug dealing was the real deal I believe things would quickly change.

There will always be those self-obsessed people who believe they won’t be caught and when they are that will be one less to worry about. But the message to everyone else will be that the risk is just too high.

Of course bringing in a system that deals correctly with these dangerous and ruthless people will mean we need to have a process that then helps those who are unfortunately addicted to the drugs the dealers supplied. But that’s another posting.