'Boris Johnson wants adverts to highlight violence fuelling cocaine use'
5 March 2021, 16:35
'PM wants adverts to highlight violence fuelling cocaine use'
Boris Johnson launching a public information campaign to crack down on middle class cocaine use would make them consider "teenagers getting stabbed in parks", LBC has been told.
The Prime Minister is reported to be planning the campaign as he hopes to make taking cocaine as socially frowned-upon as drink-driving.
It is understood that wealthier cocaine users will be targeted through TV, radio and billboard adverts which demonstrate how gang warfare and violence lie behind the drug's production.
Speaking of the campaign, Maisie McCabe, the UK Editor of Campaign magazine, told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty: "It's almost drawing a line, if you will, between people's fun at the weekend right through to...teenagers getting stabbed in parks or other young people being sent out on county lines."
Office workers should "absolutely" be tested for cocaine, caller says
"It's [about reminding people of] the people who are being maybe forced to smuggle the drugs into the country.
"You've [also] got obviously the issue with gangs and that impact on communities in South and Central America."
Referring to drug users in the UK, she summarised: "It's about making them understand that it's their actions that are causing say the violence in the streets of London and other cities."
