He just gave a message which pretty much every other Chief Constable gives, but in Brunstroms case he used different words.
Words with impact. Words which are sure to grab the headlines and in this instance, didn't it ever work?
The fact is, whether its in North Wales or anywhere else in the country, the answer to the drugs problem is always going to take some radical thinking before it can make a difference and in this instance the knee-jerk reaction and the shouts of "off with his head", are going to get us nowhere.
Lets face it he never shot anyone did he?
UK Cannabis Community
What Mr Brunstrom has achieved in sending out this message is something politicians have struggled for 8 decades to achieve and clearly this is whats done the most damage to his reputation as he seemingly did it with such consumate ease and in doing so, he embarrassed those around him. Those who continue to make a big deal out of the drug issue. When in actual fact we could see huge improvements in 12 months or less if some of Brunstroms recommendations were taken on board and implemented, and that from someone who uses drugs and not someone who only "reads about it" in a government white paper. He has almost the entire cannabis community in the UK, literally 10's of thousands of voters, sitting up and taking notice of what it is he is saying and whilst they may not all agree with him, they're still listening. A demographic which has proven historically, and for successive goverments, very difficult or even impossible to reach, yet Richard Brunstrom has spanned the divide in a single step.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the M62 motorway in Humberside, Chief Constable Tim Hollis, never one to miss out on a press call himself, has given his own message of festive fair.
According to Mr Hollis, he agrees with the planned DE-classification of cannabis, from a class C, where its rated currently, back to a class B substance, from whence it came 3 or 4 years back.
In his own words Mr Hollis stated, "I personally need a lot of convincing that the criminal justice agencies [such as the police] are best placed to deal with the harms people inflict on themselves, their families and communities by the personal use of drugs."
Which shows clearly the Humberside police wish only to wash their hands of drugs, thus allowing them to concentrate on arresting drug users and dealers without petty liberalisms getting in the way. Like "helping addicts" for instance.
But Keith Hellawell, a former chief constable of West Yorkshire Police who was the Government's "Drugs Tsar" from 1997 to 2001, said it would be a "retrograde step" if the police were to divorce themselves from drug treatment work! Meanwhile back in North Wales, the police are thinking outside of the box and looking at radical, as yet unheard of solutions to the same problem.
So thats 3 different opinions covering three different police forces, and all in the course of as many sentences, which smacks of a US based system of "federalism", which see's individual states in America able to implement their own laws concerning drugs, leading to a conveluted and mixed up national drug strategy. Clearly what it shows is that, if you get arrested for drug offences, your geographical location could be the deciding factor in how you are dealt with by the judiciary and thats just not right. In Mr Brunstroms initial recommendations to the Home Office , in which he first called for the legalisation of drugs, he called the current set of drug laws "arbitrary".
Looking at the drug opinions coming out of three of our nations Police forces, and each coming from a polar opposite viewpoint, I would have to agree.
Clearly, before deciding to break the law, careful consideration is needed to decide in which police area you wish to break the law in, and with what offences?
With this in mind rather than call for Richard Brunstroms job, shouldn't we be calling for Jack Straw's?
He's the person responsible for making such a mess of the UK drug issue over the last 10 years or so. Although judging by how the labour party are fairing in the polls, perhaps that won't be the case for very much longer? Daily zine for the global cannabis scene - join us! Set up in February 2007, the Canna Zine is the first-in-the-world news agency dedicated to the global issues surrounding cannabis and hemp. To post your free cannabis or hemp press release, sign up for a free account on http://pr.cannazine.co.uk , post your news release, and the Canna Zine will do the rest. Canna Zine - more 'evolution' than revolution! A new era in postitive response communications. |
