Pro: Law Enforcement Should Have Time, Resources To Focus On More-Serious Crimes Over my 30-year legal career, I've worked as a prosecutor, public defender and corrections official. I encountered many disturbed individuals and saw a lot of horrifying cases rape, murder and child abuse. Sometimes it was difficult to go to work knowing what awaited me. But I did go because I wanted to believe my actions were making the community safer. As time went on, however, it became increasingly apparent that the criminal justice system's focus on consensual "crimes," like those involving marijuana, destroys lives rather than protecting them. Today, with Initiative 502, the initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana, Washingtonians can vote to reverse this trend. I hope we do. [continues 505 words]
DRUGS seizures in Strathclyde have risen dramatically, with officers in the past five months recovering four times as much heroin and three times as much cocaine as in the same period last year. The Scotsman has learned that, between April and August this year, Strathclyde Police seized 108,000 grams of heroin and 11,250 grams of cocaine compared with the removal of 21,800 grams of heroin and 3,800 grams of cocaine in the corresponding period last year. Senior police officers and support agencies yesterday said they were "cautiously optimistic" that new working practices introduced earlier this year were having a significant impact on the drugs trade in Glasgow and outlying areas. [continues 238 words]
PRESCRIBING heroin on the NHS may be a "necessary evil" to tackle Scotland's worsening drug addiction problem, campaigners said yesterday. Alastair Ramsay, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, said giving GPs the authority to prescribe heroin would help drug users to access medical services for treatment and help reduce the damaging effects of drug-related crime. His comments came as it emerged that the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee is set to recommend a network of "safe injecting areas", where addicts can use diamorphine, or medical heroin, prescribed by doctors. [continues 441 words]
A SCOTTISH drug baron rubbed shoulders with senior politicians at a Labour Party-backed fundraising function, days before he was gunned down in a gangland-style execution. Convicted drug dealer, Justin McAlroy, sat just feet away from Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, as Special Branch officers looked on. Jack McConnell, the First Minister, and a Lanarkshire MP, Frank Roy, also attended the Red Rose Dinner in Motherwell on 1 March. Six days later, unemployed McAlroy was shot five times outside his home in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire. He was the victim of what is believed to be an ongoing drugs feud in the area that has seen four other men fatally shot in recent months. [continues 590 words]
The Scottish executive admitted yesterday that the high-profile war on drugs is over. Instead of advocating the "just say no" message, resources will be pumped into a new front providing information on the risks involved in drug-taking and introducing measures to combat their harmful consequences. The zero-tolerance strategy in Scotland is estimated to have cost around UKP5 million. Dr Richard Simpson, the deputy justice minister, revealed the step-change in drug policy, conceding that the "just say no" campaign and shock tactics had failed to have an impact. [continues 358 words]
