RECENT editions of the Review have carried many letters on the drugs problem locally, particularly the damaging effects it has on families.
I welcome the efforts of everyone who has helped supply information to the police to help them catch those peddling drugs to young people. I am also pleased to see the success the police have had recently in arresting a number of those involved in this criminal trade.
I would like to see further measures to support a drug-free environment in and around schools and for tougher sentences against drug dealers to young people. The Conservatives will make sure that drug dealers who sell children will be given tough mandatory sentences, and we will make available stiffer penalties for drug offending near to schools.
We also need to increase the number of police officers on the ground to fight the drugs menace. Since March 97 the police in Gloucestershire have lost 19 operational officers – the Conservatives will reverse that cut in police numbers by Labour.
Young people need our support in the fight against drugs. – Mark Harper, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Forest of Dean Conservative Association.