Pubdate: Tue, 27 May 2008 Source: Telegraph and Argus (UK) Copyright: 2008 Newsquest Media Group Contact: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4627 Author: Steve Wright SHOP DRUG BARONS URGES JUDGE A senior Bradford judge has made a personal plea to addicts to help the authorities win the war on drugs by shopping' the Mr Big dealers and importers. Judge Alastair McCallum said many communities were still being blighted by drugs - five years after he claimed ?1 million of heroin was being sold in Manningham Lane every day. In an exclusive interview with the Telegraph & Argus, Judge McCallum praised the "fantastic" work of the Bradford District Drugs Team but said the problem could be dealt with even more effectively if drug users revealed who the major suppliers are so they can be taken off the streets and locked up. In a court case at Bradford Crown Court earlier this month Judge McCallum, who has been a judge on the North Eastern Circuit for 16 years, said Bradford was being reduced to a city "riddled with drugs." Sentencing two Bradford street dealers to a total of seven years imprisonment he urged everyone in the area to stand up against drug dealers getting rich by "selling poison to young people in our community." The judge told the T&A that the situation had not changed from five years ago. "It is so serious now that a lot of ordinary families, who would never think their children would get involved with drugs, would be horrified to hear their children are being given this stuff for free. That is how these people operate, giving drugs for free the first time to lure them in." advertisementHe pleaded with drug users to reveal the identities of their suppliers. "Once you accept that there is absolutely no benefit to ingesting poison, and the only person benefiting is the importer who is making his profit simply by killing you and your mates slowly, if you were sure your name would never be revealed, why not help all your community - which means your friends - by telling the drugs squad who they are. "If they are caught, the judges can imprison them for life. It would only take half a dozen such sentences to clear out Bradford." Judge McCallum urged people not to use drugs, or they would lose their health and their liberty. He said acting as a drugs courier to support their habit would lead to two years imprisonment on a guilty plea while jail sentences would start at five years for selling drugs commercially. He said those who distributed drugs believed importers would never be caught, but they had the power to punish them. The judge added: "The major problem was that drug dealers and importers had more resources than the people chasing them. Our drugs squad bobbies are fantastic. They have to live among these sort of folk day in, day out, and have to comply with onerous rules and regulations. "A lot of drugs cases go to court, but by no means all dealers are arrested." He said judges had to keep within sentencing guidelines unless there was good reason to step outside them. But he said: "A fantastic weapon in the armoury of the judiciary against the bigger drug dealers is to create a degree of uncertainty as to what the sentence is likely to be. "There are special reasons why these defendants, having been caught at huge expense to the public purse, ought to be given big sentences. If there was some way of persuading people to let the drugs squad know who is selling to them the judges could impose prison sentences on those who need them." Judge McCallum said the emergence of skunk cannabis, which could be 100 times stronger than the ordinary drug, was a major problem. He said: "A lot of people still believe cannabis is a drug that is not going to cause any harm. But if you talk to any psychiatrist in a mental health institution they will tell you that paranoia can be brought on. If you take anything which is much stronger than what you are used to you are going to be in bother." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin