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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drugs war is our biggest test says Blunkett
ePolitix
Friday 04 Jul 2003 The home secretary has said the war against drug use is the biggest challenge facing the government. David Blunkett described the battle as "our domestic war" in a newspaper interview on Friday. He conceded ministers can do little to stop the influx of drugs into the country. But Blunkett declared reducing the use of banned substances would be "the challenge of the next decade". And he claimed his decision to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug had freed up police to tackle more serious crime. "We can make an enormous difference but it is a long haul. It is the challenge of the next decade," he told the Mirror. "They [the police] can now put all their resources into Class A drugs, which kill individuals, destroys families and communities and create the most enormous harm to society. "It is a worm that is eroding family and community life and creating criminality to feed the drugs. It is a scourge that was on the margins of society only 20 years ago but is now in the centre. "We have to be honest about this if we are going to mobilise the community to eliminate it." Blunkett said that the international market in drugs meant that the problem could not be tackled domestically alone. "We have doubled the seizure of crack this year, but the price of crack has fallen," he said. "The ability of organised criminals to reposition themselves in terms of supply is enormous, as we saw with heroin and the Afghan situation. "The ability to move that supply around the world and switch routes very quickly is enormous. We have to get more sophisticated. It is only the beginning of a bigger challenge. It is our domestic war." Armed drug gangs were another barrier in the way of progress, the home secretary told the Mirror. "Gun crime has risen and it is a real problem, linked to drugs and organised thuggery," he said. "There is a will to do something about it and we have to build on that. "The message is the police can do something, we can do something, in terms of border controls, surveillance and stopping Yardies creating havoc. "But it will only be really overcome when the communities most affected become part of the solution."
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