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UK: Former Cambridgeshire chief police constable Tom Lloyd brands new drug driving laws ‘outrageous’
Cambridge News Friday 13 Mar 2015 That is the view of former chief constable Tom Lloyd QPM, who spoke out against the new legislation at Homerton College yesterday. Lloyd, who was sitting on the drugs, crime and policing panel at the Home Affairs Select Committee Drugs Conference, said: "I think it's an outrageous law – it will criminalise people who are in no way impaired with a trace of cannabis in their system. "For medicinal cannabis users it's a backdoor way of the Home Office getting at you. It seems to me to be an outrageous and unjust law." The former chief constable, who now works as an international drugs policy advisor, was joined on the panel by Chief Constable Andy Bliss, of Hertfordshire Police, Ron Hogg, police and crime commissioner for Durham and Dr Mike Shiner, of London School of Economics. Chief constable Andy Bliss also addressed those in attendance on the new drug driving laws, suggesting they would become a "significant game changer" in police officers' efforts to tackle drug crime. He said: This means we can test readily not only for the presence of alcohol but also for the presence of drugs which are likely to seriously impair cognitive ability. "I believe that this is quite a significant game changer." Chief Constable Bliss also stressed the importance of considering young people more when drugs legislation is passed. He added: "When I speak to teachers, parents and young people there's a great deal of concern about drugs. "Many young people and their parents are anxious about how they can or should respond when they are offered drugs. "When we think about legislation we need to be extremely thoughtful about the messages and the boundaries that we are setting for young people in this most sensitive arena." The debate about how best to tackle drug-related crime, as well as offering support to those with addiction, came as a recent report indicated the use of cocaine in the UK had trebled over the past decade. The report, issued by The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said that cocaine use was no longer the "the preserve of wealthy bankers and celebrities" and had spread throughout all areas of society since the mid-1990s. It also argued that access to cheap cocaine – often mixed with harmful cutting agents – is "highly likely" to have driven the rise in the number of users from "hard pressed" or low income backgrounds. The report, addressed to home secretary Theresa May and health secretary Jeremy Hunt, is the first of its kind to investigate powdered cocaine use and was launched in response to fears of a perception that the drug is safe as use increased. However, a spokesman for the Home Office said the department "continues to be concerned about the harms caused by cocaine use, which is why it is a Class A drug". They added: "Law enforcement continues to tackle the supply of cocaine at home and abroad. "The Coalition Government has introduced new powers to combat the trade in cutting agents, which are mixed with drugs by criminals to boost their profits. "We are grateful to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for its review and recommendations on the use, prevalence and harms associated with powder cocaine. "We will consider its advice carefully and respond in due course." However, Tom Lloyd expressed the belief that a "different" approach was needed to counteract what has so far been a "war on people", rather than a war on drugs. He explained: "We must change our approach. "The key reason why I believe we should change our approach is our police should not be waging a war on people. "Charging police with a duty to enforce drugs prohibition alienated a huge number of people and that damages the legitimacy of the policing and it causes more harm than good. "If you have got a problem with drugs the last thing you need is to be arrested and prosecuted. "The mistake we have made is to focus on drugs rather than people. Drugs are not the problem, it's the circumstances. "In trying to eliminate drugs we have ridden rough shod over the lives of millions of people all over the world." http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridgeshire-chief-police-constable-Tom-Lloyd/story-26163127-detail/story.html
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