Zack Polanski told the BBC that a ‘public health approach’ is needed to drugs, including cocaine and heroin, and in his party conference speech he had a strong message to Nigel Farage
All drugs including Class A narcotics should be made legal, the leader of the Green Party has said.
Zack Polanski said a “public health approach” is needed, and said the radical move would help tackle drug gangs. He said the war on drugs has “failed” as he called for a rethink.
Mr Polanski, speaking ahead of his first leader’s speech at the party’s national conference in Bournemouth, told BBC South East: “The war on drugs has absolutely failed, and ultimately we need to be having a public health approach.”
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Asked about the impact for taxpayers he said: “Well, I think voters are having to pay right now for a crime that happens, for the fact that people are in the illegal drug markets, for gangs that we see across county lines.
“All of this is a failure of the fact that, again, for far too long, Prime Ministers have stuck their heads in their sand and said, if we just make drugs illegal, everything’s going to be okay.”
During a punchy speech he attacked Keir Starmer’s government, saying: “The Prime Minister might call this an Island of strangers. When Farage says jump, Labour might say ‘how high’.
“But the Greens won’t dance to the tune of a Trump loving, tax avoiding, science-denying, NHS dismantling corporate stooge.” And spelling out his brand of “eco-populism” he said: “If Reform can rocket through the polls with a politics of despair – then it’s time for the Green Party to do the same thing with a politics of hope.”
He said: “They (Labour) have failed us on climate like they’’ve failed us on so many things. We are now past the point where we can hope they’ll change course.
“Its politics is one of managed decline dressed up as national renewal and draped in Reform-bating policymaking. More of the same from Keir Starmer won’t just fail us now, it will hand this country on a plate to the dark forces around Nigel Farage.
“That’s what is at stake here. ” He said the small boats crisis could be solved by expanding safe and legal routes and demanded a radical wealth tax to raise cash for public services.
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