Green leader said he hosted fundraisers for the Red Cross but accepts he should not have described himself as a spokesperson for it
Zack Polanski defended the Green party’s proposal to legalise hard drugs in his Today programme interview. He stressed that the policy was “to legalise and regulate, and the regulate is important”.
He told the programme
The war on drugs has clearly failed. It has failed in cities right across this country and more and more people are often taking dangerous drugs.
So, do we want people to buy them on the black market or on street corners? Or do we want people to go to a pharmacy or a medical health professional where, if they have an addiction to dangerous drugs, we can work with them to take a public health approach based on harm reduction?
A lot of police time is spent on stop and search for cannabis use, for instance. It doesn’t escape people’s notice that that is often in the politics of racism. If you’re a young black person, I think it’s something like you’re 18 times more likely to be stopped and searched than your white peer, despite the fact there’s no evidence that they’re more likely to to be dealing or using drugs.
And so I think it’s important that we make sure the police time is spent properly, which I think is about community prevention, about cohesiveness and bringing communities together.
My very first response to the attack was to be horrified, as everyone was, I’m sure, and the first thing I posted was solidarity to the victim, to the family, and indeed, to people who are suffering right now.
Two things can be true at the same time: officers are incredibly brave when they run towards scenes of crimes that most people, including myself, will want to run away from.
At the same time, I think it is accurate, and that I was also traumatised by seeing someone handcuffed and repeatedly kicked in the head …
Continue reading...
