While other countries are abandoning a failed ‘war on drugs’, in its final days the Johnson administration is doubling down
Despite the irrepressible love that Boris Johnson’s government has shown for illegal parties, it is now taking the opportunity to tighten drug laws on its way out of the door. There is perhaps no more fitting tribute to the hypocrisy of this government than the latest drugs proposal from the Home Office.
“Swift, Certain, Tough: New consequences for drug possession” is a word-salad of a white paper and a last-gasp attempt to codify the Johnson government’s preoccupation with punishing “middle-class coke-heads” and recreational drug users. The only certainty is that the prime minister and home secretary behind the paper will have been evicted from office by the time it progresses through the legislative process.
Dr Kojo Koram teaches at the School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London
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