UK-Heroin dealers to escape jail: New sentencing proposals mean pushers would go free

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edgarshade

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Daily Mail

By Jack Doyle
Last updated at 2:09 AM on 29th March 2011

With reader comments

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370954/Heroin-dealers-escape-jail-New-sentencing-proposals-mean-pushers-free.html

Drug dealers could in future escape jail even if they sell up to £2,000 worth of heroin.

New guidelines would allow courts to give community penalties to those playing a ‘subordinate’ role in a criminal gang.

The ‘lower level’ offenders – such as drug runners – could keep their liberty even if arrested over the sale of up to 50 grams of heroin or cocaine or up to 100 tablets of ecstasy.
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DAILY MAIL COMMENT

As every parent knows, pushers of hard drugs are among the most insidious enemies of our society, profiting from misery and degradation and driving countless young people to crime and, all too often, early graves.

Yet under these astonishing draft guidelines, the Sentencing Council suggests that even the evil men and women who sell enough heroin and cocaine for 1,000 doses would be treated like minor criminals and allowed to escape jail.

One of the Coalition’s most popular pledges was that it would create a ‘bonfire of the quangos’, putting important political decisions back where they belong, in the hands of elected representatives in Parliament.

So why is this council allowed to go on overruling the will of the people and making a nonsense of the maximum sentences laid down by law to protect our children?
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Reader comments

Another crime that rates a lower punishment than dropping litter or putting your bin out on the wrong day.

- fedup, consett, 28/3/2011 23:34
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Make it legal as it was in the 20s, then the government can tax it. End of the criminal element. Less damage to every user would result due to none mixing with other sometimes nasty substances, so its purity could be fixed safely. Along with prostitution, drug's will always be around, so it is passed the time to do something about both problems.

- Alan, Huddersfield, 28/3/2011 23:25
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Drug runners to avoid prison under sentencing guidelines

Telegraph

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor 9:00PM BST 28 Mar 2011

With reader comments

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8411745/Drug-runners-to-avoid-prison-under-sentencing-guidelines.html

Offenders who only play a “subordinate” role in drug gangs may be given a community order if found supplying “small” quantities of drugs.

But under the proposed guideline from the Sentencing Council, that would include up to 50 grams of cocaine – or 50 “wraps” – up to a kilo of cannabis or 99 Ecstasy tablets.

It is the first time all courts in England and Wales would be handed a specific chart setting out how the role and quantity of drugs should impact on sentencing.

So-called “drug mules” are also expected to be handed shorter sentences after the Council, the official body that guides courts on sentencing, warned they can be forced or tricked in to the crime.

And drug users convicted of possession offences may also avoid prison even if found with ten wraps of cocaine or 20 Ecstasy pills.

The proposals will fuel concerns that courts will be too soft on drug offenders and those who use illegal substances.

Police rank and file leaders last night described the proposals as “bizarre”
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Reader comments

cousinjack

I'd be interested to know the drug/penalty/penal comparison of the proposed legislation with the situation in, for example, Singapore.....
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artgenie
40 minutes ago
Recommended by
2 people
If you want to save money by not incarcerating the mongrels, take a page from Indonesia's book. Apply the death penalty. Eventually there would be no drug runners alive left to destroy the fabric of civilisation. Do you have the guts to do this in face of the bleeding liberals.
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chopper
Today 04:33 AM
Recommended by
3 people
Good grief! This is madness.
It is all about saving the cost of locking the scum up, not about quality of life of people who may be affected by yet more drugs coming into the UK.
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loyalpadre
Today 03:54 AM
Recommended by
2 people
Using this logic, couldn''t we save a whole lot more money by extending this to rapists, pedaphiles and brutal murderers?

We could also save money by refusing to respond to police calls for trivialities such as vandalism and burglary.

This country went to the dogs years ago and all this is is another gentle reminder, in much the same way as the rioters embarassed our underfunded and under-resourced Police Force on Saturday.
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The Daily Fail should of just reported "UK comes to it's senses"

Why do these people always insist that people who sell hard drugs target children and try to get them addicted? Almost every dealer that I have ever dealt with refuses to sell to children or even young people because they don't think they're mature enough to handle their product. That has happened on more than one occasion in the area I live and it makes me sick to see reports like this.

I understand that there are some people who are just in it for the money and do not care who they harm, but it does not represent the entire drug community. Leave it to the media to demonize something they cannot comprehend.
 
Hell, if nothing else, isnt it "better" to spend resources eliminating the bulk suppliers rather than small "dealers" who can jsut be easily replaced. I dont think that these people are the "career" drug dealers...
Hell, its a lot easier to get someone to start selling small amounts/sell small amounts of drugs than it is to deal in bulk. If you get rid of bulk suppliers, you'll have a much greater impact on the drug trade rather than take out some small time kid..
 
Using this logic, couldn''t we save a whole lot more money by extending this to rapists, pedaphiles and brutal murderers?

We could also save money by refusing to respond to police calls for trivialities such as vandalism and burglary.

This country went to the dogs years ago and all this is is another gentle reminder, in much the same way as the rioters embarassed our underfunded and under-resourced Police Force on Saturday.
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I hate this argument, it's absurd.

Drug use, for the most part, is a fairly victimless crime. Rape, pedophilia, robbery, those are acts inflicted on a victim. A drug user 'chooses' to use drugs, and even when they're addicted on some level it's a personal choice, and somebody choosing to take drugs doesn't impact on my life.

Not to mention that a great deal of the harm caused by many drugs stems from the fact that it's illegal in the first place.
 
This article is also in the sun but it mentions ecstacsy, LSD etc

Under guidelines released yesterday, low-level peddling also includes less than 100 ecstasy pills, 250g of amphetamine, 50 doses of LSD, 1kg of cannabis or 50g of the tranquiliser ketamine.
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-for-dealers-caught-with-50-heroin-wraps.html


To be quite honest though even now before this rule gets implemented if i got caught with like 90 pills or something there is no way they would send me to jail if it was a first time offence, they are already very lenient I guess they are just making it an official rule now, although a kilo of cannabis lol im not so sure about that.

Are they aware that we dont smoke soap bar anymore?
 
enough heroin to supply up to 20 junkies - knowing they will not be jailed if caught.
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WTF does that even fuckin mean?? Wat is "enough" heroin for a junkie? It could be enough heroin for 100 junkies, or for 10 junkies, depending on how much each one of them does per day, and thats fuckin stupid anyways cuz if you sell to 20 dopeheads, it aint like each one of them all got the same size habit....Just dumb ass reporting, like usual....
 
It makes financial sense to turn a blind eye to low level posession ( more consumers)
but keep dealing illegal (high price)

Ain't capitalism sick?

PROFIT.....
 
^Also, there's not really "enough" for a junky, just enough for a given time period. Any junky will eventually use 50 g of dope (and way more then that of course), so it's not even enough for 1 junky for more then a little while, depending on their habit, like you said. It's a totally meaningless statement.
 
It is nuts man, just look at the amount of small time drug users/dealers overcrowding british prisons and now they are talking about letting off people carrying massive, charlie sheen weekend size stashes, they should have thought of it years ago when sending people to jail on posession charges for a good load of them to come out of prison with their lives in tatters and probably carrying addictions to other drugs they would never have had if they were not jailed.

On the point about the papers being totally dumb just look back at the handling of the leah betts coverage, an average middle class british youngster takes ecstacy and if i remember correctly she only had a half of an apple tablet and died but it was pure and combined with drinking way too much water, that is what killed her. The tabloids weren't interested in these quite important facts until days, maybe weeks later and clubbers needed to know so if at the time you were a first time pill user and got hold of one from the same batch you could of given it a wide berth. Fuck man i remember when we found out ages after, we were desperate to find some.
Yes it was tragic and sad, just having to watch her father fall to pieces on telly but like the papers he was wide of the mark too with his campaign but i can see why he did it.
Something that made me chuckle were t-shirts saying "Leah betts is a lightweight" on them. I mean if that isn't a sign that people are not going to stop taking drugs for any fucker and they especially arent going to listen to the tabloids.
Just say no, at the time it was more like just say blow.
I don't know what is to be done but it definitely isn't letting someone off carrying enough drugs to last Charlie sheen, Shaun ryder and Bez and a handful of blues musicians a long weekend. I'm glad i'm not a judge.
 
The Sun are really on to this one big time. This is their front page story now.

Free to Deal

With reader comments

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3499088/Judge-lets-off-pusher-with-50k-drug-haul-including-crystal-meth.html

A DRUG dealer was spared jail by a soft judge - even though he was caught with a massive stash worth £50,000.

Colin MacDonald, 34, appeared for sentencing before Judge Stephen Holt after cops who raided his home found:

90g of highly-addictive crystal meth rocks stuffed in a washbag;

90g of powdered cocaine;

100 ecstasy pills;

85g of amphetamines, and THREE bin bags stuffed with dried cannabis leaves.

Police also discovered seven boxes of Viagra, a large quantity of powerful painkiller Tramadol, self-seal bags and two sets of scales. MacDonald admitted five counts of possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs at a magistrates' hearing. Yet Judge Holt gave him just a suspended 12-month jail term.

And MacDonald, of Dollis Hill, North London, walked free.

The case, which came to light a day after a panel of top judges recommended lenient sentences for dealers THEY regard as "small-time", caused dismay and anger among police. A source close to the case said: "MacDonald put his hands up early but no one was expecting him to walk out of court.

"This is the kind of sentencing that is hugely demoralising to police and other authorities trying to win the war on drugs." Outraged Tory MP Patrick Mercer said MacDonald's sentence "seems derisory". He added: "It sets a dangerous precedent for one of the biggest problems facing the police."
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They believe they look energetic and confident but their actions appear frenzied and psychotic.

Users suffer palpitations, restlessness, headaches, a dry mouth and incredibly itchy skin, which can be followed by heart attacks.

One addiction expert said: "If Satan himself had developed a drug, it would be crystal meth."
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Fury as crystal meth dealer found with a £50,000 drug supply escapes jail

Also in The Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...h-dealer-50-000-drug-supply-escapes-jail.html


Is this is sign the UK is actually becoming more lenient or liberal towards drugs?

I remember someone on here, maybe Edgarshade, saying that one of the main obstacles in having a sensible debate and getting more realistic drug laws in the UK was the mainstream media, especially the right-wing, tabloids.

The papers' websites linked above are a perfect example of the attitude that stops progressive drug laws from happening…
 
LSDMDMA&9486449 said:
Hell, if nothing else, isnt it "better" to spend resources eliminating the bulk suppliers rather than small "dealers" who can jsut be easily replaced. I dont think that these people are the "career" drug dealers...
Hell, its a lot easier to get someone to start selling small amounts/sell small amounts of drugs than it is to deal in bulk. If you get rid of bulk suppliers, you'll have a much greater impact on the drug trade rather than take out some small time kid..
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they don't care how "small time" the kid is... it's about the principle. the fact that we like a few extra kicks on the mu opioid receptors in our brains makes them want to kill us on principle alone.

which is a little disturbing. one of the very many ways the powers that be divides the population up into competing/fighting factions.
 
7zark7 said:
I remember someone on here, maybe Edgarshade, saying that one of the main obstacles in having a sensible debate and getting more realistic drug laws in the UK was the mainstream media, especially the right-wing, tabloids.

The papers' websites linked above are a perfect example of the attitude that stops progressive drug laws from happening…
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Not just me! Some broadsheets are saying so too...
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=564067
 
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