Pubdate: Tue, 01 Oct 2013
Source: Press and Journal, The (UK)
Copyright: 2013 Aberdeen Journals Ltd
Contact:  http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/347
Author: John Cameron
Page: 28

POLICE CHIEF'S VIEWS ON DRUGS

SIR,  Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton has rightly called (the Press
and Journal, September 30) for the decriminalisation of all narcotics,
including heroin and cocaine, and for problems to be dealt with in
clinics, not the courts.

Mr Barton is not the first senior policeman to criticise Richard
Nixon's decision to use the failed methods of prohibition to tackle
the problem of recreational drug use.

In 2010, Tim Hollis, chief constable of Humberside, said the war on
drugs had clearly been lost and the only group to benefit from the
present setup was organised crime.

But much earlier, in the 1980s, the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland twice debated the issue and the same arguments were made for
decriminalisation.

However, even the support of that farsighted former moderator Andrew
Heron failed to overcome the conservative instincts of the Kirk on
such a sensitive matter.

Rev Dr John Cameron, Howard Place, St Andrews.
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MAP posted-by: Matt