There was a question from Dr Brian Iddon, the Labour MP for Bolton South-East:
I welcome the reduction in the misuse of any drug, whether legal or illegal, but does my hon. Friend the Minister recognise that enforcement action can have unintended consequences, as evidenced by the shift from the smuggling of low-tetrahydrocannabinol-content cannabis from places such as Morocco to the large-scale farming in rented properties of high-THC-content cannabis all across Britain? I can report that, in the past three or four months, Bolton police alone have captured 20 houses where farming is conducted by Thai and Vietnamese criminal gangs.And the reply from the minister, Vernon Coaker?
I accept my hon. Friend’s point that, at times, when the law is enforced in one area, the crime is displaced to another, but the important issue is surely that we enforce the law.If it is making things worse, maybe enforcing the law is not "the important issue".
1 comment:
I think the logic probably runs along the lines of - 'the law is just and proper because it is the law, therefore it must be enforced'.
Possibly with a nod towards the law being the right law for the time since it has become that through some sort of historical inevitability.
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