UK Justice Secretary: Middle-class coke users to blame for gang deaths in London

[Noss]

https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/27/middle-class-cocaine-users-are-to-blame-for-gang-deaths-in-london-7581377/

Gee, talk about passing the buck.

[Download]

No, the war on drugs causes those deaths.

[Dumpus]

Is there a big war on drugs in Britain?
I've only ever heard that term in reference to America.

[Noss]

Our sentencing for drug crimes isn't as harsh, but criminalising drugs still gives the means of production and distribution to the criminals.

[Grink Of Meat]

Speaking as a person who wouldn't really want to associate with a frequent coke-user; why the fuck aren't we just legalizing this shit? Let some coke-company sell it cheaper than the gangsters ever could, and move the government in to regulate the quality and composition. A bazillion problems would get solved instantaneously.

[Borealis]

Be glad your war on drugs isn't a massive machine of forced labor and disenfranchisement for minorities. (the 13th amendment specifically says forced labor for prisoners is ok)

[Download]

Basically this. Criminalising drugs funds organised crime.

[Sundowner]

I'm completely on the side of decriminalization/legalisation, but the issue with the gangs in London will not be solved by taking the cocaine out of their hands. Most of them aren't selling coke because it affords them a rockstar lifestyle - most of them are either still living with their mums, or they get shipped out to Cunch by their olders to live in a crackheads flat and sell the package out of it.

These kids are selling drugs and joining these gangs because they're living in a city that is actively pushing them out and they have no recourse. The schools are underfunded, the youth clubs have been shut down, the rent is too high, and the jobs that an untrained unskilled labourer can obtain in a city as dense as london are few and far between. If the cocaine and heroin are taken out of the hands of these gangs, they will resort to other illegal efforts to obtain money.

What London needs is a support system for the working class youth to help them see the value in struggling to live a straight life, and that's near impossible without the youth clubs/properly funded schools. Back in the day if you were messing around with a gang a youth worker who was actually an older from your area who got on the straight and narrow might pull you aside and tell you it's a bad idea - and you'd listen because he'd been there. That village mentality is just not there anymore.

[Resonant]

Dinner parties?

Does this guy live in the early 1800's?

[Geel]

Knowingly giving money to a criminal organization for a substance you do not need means that you do share responsibility for what that criminal organization does with your funds.

Yes, the government is also responsible. The war on drugs is a nightmare that has solved no problems and created millions.

Still, you're knowingly funding a criminal organization. You know where your money is going. You're responsible for that.

[Sableye]

but that requires spending money on things that elderly tax payer joes aren't sure about because they just know those kids are no good good for nothings