Iddon wants a thorough debate

Brian Iddon talks to The World This Wekend Duration 2'57"

Bolton MP Wants Royal Commission on Drugs

Mr Iddon's is the latest in a series of demands for a thorough debate about drugs and their use. The left-wing Labour MP for Newport West Paul Flynn says the Government should at least consider legalising the drugs trade.

Flynn: present policy makes things worse

Mr Flynn said that Britain's ban on drugs was fuelling the problem and "killing people". "What we are doing is following the failed policies of America. We know in America that drugs prohibition is not working. At the present moment our policy - prohibition of drugs - is actually fuelling the increase in drugs," he said.

Mr Iddon's comments come shortly after the Government announced plans for a new Drugs Czar to co-ordinate the anti-drugs effort. The Drugs Czar idea was borrowed from the US.

Mr Iddon said that the Government had "backed off" considering the decriminalisation of drugs. "Clare Short mentioned the word 'decriminalisation' and got into hot water for doing so. But there are a number of people on the Labour benches now who want an honest, open discussion about the drugs problem," he said.

"The word `decriminalisation' has got to be part of that discussion, in my opinion," he told BBC Radio's The World This Weekend. "We need a Royal Commission on drugs. We need to hear the evidence. We need to get into the whole debate about the decriminalisation of drugs. We do need an honest, straightforward discussion, because as long as there is money in the sale of drugs and prohibited substances, of course we will have crime and we will have tragedies like the one that occurred in Bolton this week," he said.

Mr Iddon, who was a long-serving Labour councillor in Bolton before becoming an MP in May, today visited the Bolton street where Dillon was shot. He said there had long been a drugs problem in the town, with previous shootings.

"Everyone in Bolton knows where the drug dealers are," he said. "We have streets in Bolton that have been turned into barren places because nobody will accept a council house on that estate close to a well-known drug dealer."

Jackie Long reports on Bolton's drug problem for The World This Weekend
Dur. 6'06

Residents in Bolton have complained that the police are not doing enough to tackle the drugs trade. They say the dealers are openly selling drugs from their own homes, yet police do not arrest them.