Drug users who are searched and arrested will be offered a year-long narcotics education and rehabilitation scheme instead of facing a criminal conviction. In an interview with the Guardian, before North Wales police roll out their rehab scheme, Jones said there already was “de facto decriminalisation” by most police forces in Britain. A new scheme is about to launched by myself here in north Wales where there will be a list of offences that are deemed minor. Jones revealed that there were 33 county lines drug smuggling networks operating in his region, 90% of them run by criminal gangs from Merseyside. The exploitation of children through county lines is an indirect, unintended consequence of that policy.

Source: The Guardian October 07, 2019 06:00 UTC