I think its got worse than just the Government – the British population (at least down South) who don’t take drugs don’t care either about anyone else, they think that more old bill and arrests and prisons are the solution, but won’t even pay their taxes for these “heavy” services let alone more rational public service approaches to addiction.
There must have been about 3 or 4 elections in the last few years alone, in Britain the electoral system has issues but its not anywhere as dysfunctional as the USA and folk down South have consistently voted for the Tories..
County Lines and the rise in class A addiction (which predates them) are a direct result of first the clampdown on the rave/club scene in the 2000s, and subsequently the NPS vendors without creating alternatives for young people that might encourage them not to take (as many) drugs in the first place.
Iceland has done a good job diverting youths from drug and alcohol use, but a fair bit of taxpayers money was spent on that (and there aren’t many people in Iceland to start with, although it seems that smaller countries value their kids and young people a lot more)
