Boris Johnson’s government is proposing new punishments for the “middle-class coke heads” fuelling “gang violence and turf wars”, such as requiring them to surrender their passports when their football team is playing abroad.
“We will propose new punishments for so-called ‘recreational’ users who continue to flout the law, and for those who continue to offend, these sanctions will get increasingly painful,” wrote Christopher ‘Kit’ Malthouse MP, the Minister of State with responsibility for policing at the Priti Patel-led Home Office, in an article for The Telegraph — although the rarely imposed maximum penalty for possession of class ‘A’ drugs in England is already up to seven years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
“Exploitation, child abuse, slavery and extreme violence are part of the business model… Just because [users] are not directly involved in gang violence and turf wars, that does not mean they should have a clear conscience,” Malthouse insisted, adding that, in fact, such people are “intrinsic” to such problems as a major source of income for “dangerous criminal organisation” who are “destroying communities” from the affluent London neighbourhood of Chelsea “to Colombia” in South America, home to some of the world’s most powerful drug cartels.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed the junior minister in comments quoted by Sky News, saying: “Middle-class coke heads should stop kidding themselves, their habit is feeding a war on our streets driving misery and crime across our country and beyond.”
Like Malthouse, he said his government was introducing new punishments to “[step] up our efforts to make sure those who break the law face the full consequences” — although again, the measures being proposed fall well short of the maximum penalties which already exist but are hardly ever imposed.
“Last year, almost 3,000 people in England and Wales died because of illegal drug use,” Malthouse observed, noting that this is a deadlier toll than that from road traffic accidents and knife crime put together, and further noting that drugs “drive nearly half of all homicides” and a similar percentage of burglaries, robberies, and thefts — costing the state “nearly £20 billion a year” even if only England is considered without the smaller Home Nations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
With this in mind, the policing minister asked readers to believe that football (soccer) banning orders — “a game-changer in rooting out racism and violence at football” — could make a real impact on so-called recreational drug use, with users possibly being required to surrender their passports while their teams are playing overseas in the reforms.
“Policing and football authorities all support this measure and it is an important step in ensuring that the use of drugs at football is tackled so the majority of fans, particularly those with families, can enjoy themselves without suffering anti-social behaviour and violence,” commented Mark Roberts, the so-called “football lead” for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
“The UKFPU (The UK Football Policing Unit) will be coordinating activity with police forces and clubs from the start of next season to ensure that we make the best use of this legislation to target the use of drugs at football,” Roberts added.
Commentators have long doubted truly tough action will be taken on illegal drug abuse due to the guilty consciences of Members of Parliament, many of whom are believed to take or have a history of abusing narcotics themselves.
Michael Gove MP, a senior Secretary of State in Johnson’s Cabinet, has for example admitted to abusing cocaine “on several occasions” as a “young journalist” — abuse that never resulted in punishment and has not prevented him from reaching the upper echelons of the British government in middle age.
It was reported late in 2021 that there was evidence of cocaine use in multiple lavatories on the parliamentary estate, with the Speaker of the House of Commons having to issue a statement that he would be consulting on the issue with the Metropolitan Police.