Britain 'floundering' in online mephedrone crackdown

I hate to say it but I could see the authorities switching tactics by deciding to target users even more than vendors. They could thus introduce a zero-tolerance approach and consequently question or even raid customers whose details were found on seized computers, etc. Rather than going after just the largest buyers, they could do random investigations in order to put the fear of God into the scene in efforts to thwart it.

They will have increased technology to snoop and investigate, after all.

I thus see things either becoming more draconian or hopefully they will begin to see sense and adopt a more liberal laissez-faire approach. But with the tabloid fervour and outrage of Middle England, I fear things will become more difficult as they get more familiar with monitoring the 'Wild West' of this internet.
 
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There would be significant cost involved in doing so.

I can't say I fully understand how US operations work, and I'm not sure how it is over in the UK, but the amount of time that would be spent on finding violators, arresting them, cataloging evidence, going to court, etc. there's just no way it would ever be worth it. The cost per investigation and arrest, even just in payroll expenses, would be in the thousands.

If they were arresting small time individuals they'd lose their resources to go after the bigger fish. Taking time, manpower, money, and other resources and putting it toward capturing users on a micro level would only ever be possible if they suddenly had surplus of those resources.
 
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