The UK government will direct approximately $398 million towards tackling drugs gangs and boost rehabilitation for users, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.
Johnson said the strategy would tackle 300,000 “problem drug users”, who account for about half of burglaries, robberies, thefts and murders.
“You’ve got to recognize that, overwhelmingly, the problem is caused by 300,000 people whose lives are simply chaotic, who are who are torn apart by their own addiction,” the prime minister said.
“But you’ve also got to come down hard on the gangsters who are who are making hell of people’s lives,” said Johnson, after observing a police raid in Merseyside in England’s north west.
The investment will see a crackdown on drugs gangs with an aim to dismantle 2,000 so-called county lines – networks used to drive the drug trade in rural areas of the country.
The measures make part of the government’s 10-year drugs strategy published on Monday, designed to address both the supply and demand for drugs. (AFP/Reuters)