calger14

Hi Peter,

I'm currently an officer in the Metropolitan Police. As you can imagine I deal with a large number of homeless drug users some of whom are the most prolific thiefs and burglars on my borough. Obviously the Misuse of Drugs act is totally unfit for purpose and the whole system needs rewriting I know. Thinking small scale, what's the best thing I can do during my short interactions with homeless drug users (whether in a criminal situation or not) to find then help?

I understand one brief interaction might not be able to do much and we do generally put on a report that social services see but any suggestions help. Thanks for everything you do, it's amazing and projects like yours should receive so much more support than they do.

Edit: just to clear it for a few, Metropolitan Police in London, UK :-)

Do you now know what the capital of Assyria is?

You have so many hats...

Yeah most will share your thoughts. I don't know a single officer that doesn't support the legalisation of cannabis and most support the decriminalisation of class A. To some extent it already happens in that we never ever stop search class A users we come across. The only time I actually will stop then is if they're accused or get arrested for something separate and even then I'm not taking their pipe, foil etc. off them..

Unfortunately the Tory party is rather backwards so any overhaul in drug legislation isn't going to happen anytime soon.

What were your opinions of General Montgomery as a commander?