Shropshire Star comment: Fight goes on to stop drug use

Criminal gangs think of it as an attractive county using a different set of criteria. From their point of view, it is a place into which they can extend their drugs territories, and exploit new victims.

Setting up their criminal infrastructure away from their home turf is desirable for them. And these virgin territories, as they see them, offer lucrative new opportunities for their drug-dealing activities.

For some time now the police have been raising the alarm about these so-called county lines gangs which seek to recruit and exploit the vulnerable and the young.

It is these small fry in the operation who have been roped in, coerced, encouraged, or blackmailed, who are being exploited and take the rap when caught while the big players continue to rake in their ill-gotten gains.

Tackling the county lines operations is now an important contemporary policing issue, and it is one in which spreading awareness among the public about the warning signs, and developing ways to ensure the young and vulnerable in Shropshire are not ensnared, will need to play a major part.

Exploitation

Shropshire Council already has a scheme that helps vulnerable youngsters.

Cranking up the police response and having schemes in place to try to stop youngsters fall into the trap of exploitation could be broadly characterised as fighting back against the scourge of drugs.

You do not have to look far to find people, including in the police, within politics, and within bodies involved in work in this area, who advocate a completely different approach.

The continual fight is, they argue, demonstrably not working. Moreover, they contend that in some ways it is making things worse because those who have, for whatever reason, fallen in with a drugs-led lifestyle have no choice but to deal with people who are by definition criminal and have in effect a monopoly on the power to control and exploit drug-users.

A comparison is made with the prohibition days of the United States, which led to the rise of characters like Al Capone.

All this week we have been putting the issues under the microscope, and you can dip in again today and weigh up some of the arguments for yourself.

While anything perceived as a let-up in the fight against drugs – which are destroying lives – would be enormously controversial, plainly there is a case to be made for the use of medicinal cannabis, where the recipients are not victims, but beneficiaries.