A fresh approach is needed

Last week Parliament passed a motion to look at a more “evidence based” approach to tackling drug use. It’s certainly not before time. Even in apparently leafy Leamington big time drug dealers coming from nearby cities make a fortune from ruining lives, decimating families and pulling apart our communities.

It’s clear that illegality doesn’t equate to harm – you only have to look at freely available but destructive ‘legal highs’ and the impact of excessive alcohol in our town to see that. It’s also clear that limited resources prevent the police from being able to enforce the law on personal use especially on cannabis, leaving many people routinely breaking the law and putting their health at risk.

Our drugs policy is a mess – caught in limbo for generations by politicians not prepared to risk looking ‘soft’ because we, the public, are too frightened to even consider dropping our big enforcement stick.

Excellent drugs treatment agencies in Leamington like Recovery Partnership, ESH Works and Narcotics Anonymous work hard with people trapped in addiction to support them and their families on a journey to recovery. We owe it to all of them and ourselves to put down our hang ups and take a long hard look at how we can deal with drug use and make our towns an even safer and happier place to live.

Will Roberts, Leamington and Warwick Green Party