‘Lineker call to legalise drugs is common sense’
POLICE boss Arfon Jones has praised Match of the Day TV presenter Gary Lineker after he called for drugs to be legalised.
North Wales Crime Commissioner Mr Jones has been a longtime campaigner for illegal narcotics to be decriminalised.
He thanked Lineker, a former England international centre forward, who has backed drug laws reform on Twitter social media claiming “Prohibition doesn’t work”.
Lineker also argued prohibition had played into the hands of organised crime gangs.
The ex-Barcelona, Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur player, who also presents BT Sport’s Champions’ League coverage, told his 6.9 million Twitter followers: “It’s high time we decriminalised drugs. Help those with problems rather than make them criminals. Give tax revenue to NHS. Tickety-boo.”
He added: “Controversial, no doubt, but never understood the drug laws. Just get on with decriminalisation. Prohibition doesn’t work, just creates much worse crime. Other countries like Portugal are leading the way and results are impressive.”
Lineker then described as common sense a tweet from pressure group LEAP UK which said: “After years fighting & failing to win the #WarOnDrugs, our members realised we are part of the problem, not the solution. If we want to take control back from Organised Crime we need to legally regulate all drugs. Currently drug-gangs have all the power.”
Mr Jones responded to Lineker saying: ”Absolutely right, regulation of drugs would reduce organised criminality massively. Thanks for your support.”
The reply went down well with the sports broadcaster who retweeted it.
Mr Jones, a former police inspector, said: “I very much welcome the common sense approach of Gary Lineker to the drugs issue.
“It’s been clear to me for a long time that the so-called war on drugs has failed and we therefore have to think outside the box with common sense and prag- matism so we can solve this problem once and for all. Carrying on repeating the same mistakes does not make any sense.
“At the moment, what everybody is doing is treating the symptoms of substance abuse and drug addiction rather than addressing the underlying causes.
“We should be treating drug addiction as a public health issue rather than as a criminal matter.
“You can’t force somebody into treatment or rehabilitation until they’re ready.
“That’s the nature and the power of addiction, so in the meantime we should have things in place for harm reduction to protect problematic drug users.”
Mr Jones also argued for the setting up a Drug Consumption Room (DCR) in Wrexham where he said addicts can take them safely, make the streets safer and free up police officers to tackle other crime.
The Crime Commissioner added: “The real villains here are the organised criminals who are responsible for peddling all this misery and they are the ones we should we targeting with all our might.”