Out of touch Lib Dems enter drugs debate as they struggle to get voters on side; they aren’t addressing the real issue, bankrupting the drugs market

Dear All

The Lib Dems have just had a Scottish Conference to try and boost their morale.

Only problem, they booked the venue but no one turned up to hear the Speakers.

When the Scottish Secretary Michael Moore spoke, he did so to a near empty hall.

Barnsley Central was a key turning point in the fortunes of the Lib Dems as a political force.

It showed that Nick Clegg has made the party unelectable and toxic, more so even that the Tories.

The Lib Dems are desperate.

Callum Leslie is the Lib Dem party candidate for Mid Fife and Glenrothes.

He has put out a call that Scotland’s heroin users should not be imprisoned or fined and should get the drug on the NHS.

And in a motion on the final day at the LibDem conference in Perth, Liberal Democrat members have agreed.

The problem is that this is simply a patch up job; it doesn’t fully tackle the problem.

The real issue remains as it always has, bankrupting the entire drugs market!

You bankrupt the market; you destroy not just the drugs market itself but the off shoots as well. The drugs market is one of the liquidity assets of crime, destroy that and you destroy empires.

For some time, I have been calling for the legalisation of drugs as a priority in the fight as crime.But the issue is more than just crime; it stretches right into the social fabric of Scotland.

And there is another reason, the drugs market is a huge pool of liquidity that the State should have access to.

It is a straight choice; would the public prefer the State or Crime gangs to profit from drugs?

If the State gets the money, it can be ploughed back into treatment, education and other benefits for the whole community.

The money is just sitting there, a huge vast pool of cash, untapped.

Lib Dems have voted in favour of campaigning for the introduction of diamorphine maintenance treatment.Drug users would be given clean diamorphine, (heroin) and this in turn will cut the number of deaths from tainted street heroin.

The problem in the past is that there has never been an encompassing solution to deal with the problem properly.

Callum Leslie said:

“For drug offenders, fines and jail time simply don’t work. In fact a fine will make it much more likely for a drug user to turn to a life of crime to fuel their habit. Instead, the Liberal Democrats want to see a much greater use of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) and Community Service Orders (CSOs). The evidence shows that these methods work. Offenders are forced to pay back the community they harmed and have a chance to get drug-free for good. Controlled diamorphine treatment is a method that works where other methods have failed. It stops offenders getting street heroin, which can be fatal and turns offenders to further crime to fund their habit.”

Leslie patently doesn’t get it.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, LibDem candidate for Edinburgh Central, said:

“There is a great cost to society, and the public purse, if offenders are just abandoned to a cycle of crime and prison. DTTOs and CSOs are measures that would save public money by keeping drug abusers out of jail. Drug offenders should not be treated the same as murderers. ‘We should work to treat the problem of drug abuse, not lock addicts away and condemn them to a life of crime. This is a problem that affects drug users, families and the wider community. It needs a holistic solution.”

This move by the Lib Dems won’t work, DTTO’s are a bad idea, in a single move they will alienate the people they are trying to reach out to.

Yet again, the out of touch Lib Dems show why the people of Britain have deserted them.

They don’t understand the needs of people and the voters in May will send them another message, we don't want you.

I picked the Eric Cartman picture because I wanted to signify what I think of the Lib Dems as policymakers on law and order.

Eric Cartman famously said:

"Respect my authoritah!"

The Lib Dems are becoming a joke party but Cartman at least raises a laugh.

Funny little people going nowhere and achieving nothing.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University