Daily Mail goes crazy over Brunstrom

Jock Coats highlights a very important point regarding North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom.

If you read Chris Bryant MP's comments about Brunstrom, they are actually putting forward one of the strongest arguments for a form of legalisation of drugs:

I think these are very dangerous views. Ecstasy is not a safe drug and the people who sell ecstasy to youngsters in the Rhondda also sell heroin and the whole shooting range of drugs.
Drugs have been one of the major challenges that the Rhondda has had to face since the mines [closed]...When you start buying [drugs] from somebody the whole sweetie counter is available to you. And we need to do more to disrupt the supply chain.

Well, there is no greater way to disrupt the supply chain than legalise the things so that they are controlled and dealt with properly, so that there is no "progression" and youngsters being caught up in the illegal supply chain.

My own view is that we need a "Brunstrom is right" campaign. I see he is rapidly being eaten up by the Daily Mail in full throat. He gets the full front page screaming treatment today:

"THE MOST IDIOTIC POLICE CHIEF IN BRITAIN"

The BBC has a report here on "normal" medicines which cause deaths through allergic reactions. There appear to be about a thousand deaths a year caused by reactions to medicinal drugs, of which four out of five are thought to occur from faults in the drugs themselves. These include aspirin and ibuprofen. I can't find the exact figures for the deaths from aspirin, but it looks as though Brunstrom is right. Of course, the Mail think he is "idiotic" because it doesn't fit in with their cosy conventional wisdom. It actually requires some thought to understand what Brunstrom is getting at - and thought is something which has never been the Daily Mail's strong point.