Middle-class drug users could see passports taken in tough new crackdown

Middle-class cocaine dabblers could see their passports and driving licences snatched as part of a tough new government crackdown, Boris Johnson has warned.

The Prime Minister – who admitted to using the class A drug as a teenager – wants to target the groups who use the narcotic to fuel a certain “lifestyle” but avoid ever being imprisoned.

“These people think it's a victimless crime – it isn’t,” he told the Sun on Sunday.

“We are going to look at new ways of penalising them. Things that will actually interfere with their lives, so we will look at taking away passports and driving licences.”

There are two groups of people who use illegal substances, Boris argued.

One consists of the 300,000 addicts to heroin and crack cocaine, who are in and out of jail and drive most drug-related crime.

The second is the people who aren’t addicted to the drug and avoid the criminal justice system.

“(This) separate group can cope but are also feeding the demand and helping to create the economics of the business.

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“I don't want to stereotype them but I'm talking about lifestyle drugs,” said the PM.

A whopping £19 billion is spent combatting illegal drugs in the UK every year – including money for health, the cost of crime and impacts on society, reports The Mirror.

The government's 10-year-plan is expected to launch this week, outlining exactly how they plan to combat the problem.

Radical plans could include football-style travel bans, longer sentences for drug dealers and tactics to split up County Lines gangs.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC: “We want to be very clear on the sentences and penalties. We don’t think so-called middle class taking of cocaine is somehow okay.

“In that sense we’re going to be tough. But we’re also looking at how we help drug addicts get free of their dependency.”

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