this is bbc news these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. the former myanmar leader aung san suu kyi ousted in a military takeover is sentenced to four years in prison for inciting unrest the first in a series of verdicts that could see herjailed for the rest of her life. one of the creators of the oxford astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine urges the world to invest more to prepare forfuture pandemics saying the next one could be even worse. if you take take drugs at the weekend so called recreational drug users you could have your passport and driving license confiscated as part of a government plan to reduce drug use in england and wales. we are putting a lot more investment, number one, into tackling the 300,000 problem drug users who drive about half of acquisitive crime and half
on clamp down stuff and a bit less emphasis on the softer stop and i wonder once we see this strategy at the end of the day, if the balance is different. the end of the day, if the balance is different- nequela whittaker used to lead a gang in south london but she s now a youth worker in brent. she s also the author of street girl, a book about her life. thank you for talking to us. tell our audience both here in the uk and around the world a little bit about what was happening to you in your teenage years which ultimately led to you being put injail? this a teenage years which ultimately led to you being put injail? to you being put in “ail? as a young erson, i to you being put in “ail? as a young person. mould to you being put in jail? as a young person, i would say to you being put in jail? as a young person, i would say i to you being put in jail? as a young person, i would say i became - person, i would say i became a product of my environment and that was getting invol
drug misuse is one of the most hard to fix issues faced by government. close to a million people are thought to use cocaine in england and wales each year. in england alone, a quarter of a million people are long term users of heroin and 180,000 use crack cocaine. many people use both. the new drug strategy will try to get the estimated 300,000 addicts in england and wales into better treatment, in the hopes of improving their lives and reducing crime. the strategy is disappointing, i think, from our point of view. it focuses far too much on what we already have, which is criminalising people who come into contact with drugs, and until we start seeing the drug problem as a health issue rather than a criminal issue, i don t think much is going to change. two thirds of all shoplifting, more than half of all burglary, and more than a quarter of all robberies in england and wales are thought to be drug related. ministers are also keen to emphasise a further crackdown on what are known as c
potentially lose your passport or driving licence if you are found guilty of consuming those drugs in that way. and the idea that there is that way. and the idea that there is that people feel a real difference in their life rather than getting a slap on the wrist that they could quite easily live with. then you have the second piece of the puzzle which is expanding the whole enforcement picture against the county lines model, the government seems to think certain problem areas, they have found the right model for disrupting those gangs and that system. the third piece of the puzzle is this huge amount of extra money for rehabilitation and education and detox programmes. and you have to take all those three things together, add them up and look at it over a long period. but it is interesting just how the government has been speaking to different audiences today. if you read the newspapers and listen to ministers and see the collins that the home secretary has written in the home secret
against the county lines networks that are preying on these users. you ve got to invest in rehabilitation, everybody who knows about drugs trials, 300,000 people, their lives are chaotic and they need to be taken off drugs, put into rehab, but you ve also got to come down hard on the gangsters who are making hell of people s lives. we want everyone to be able to grow up in safer streets, everybody to have the right to have a safe community to grow up in. the leader of the labour party, sir keir starmer, said drug problems in the uk had got worse during the conservatives time in government. we need to look at the plans in detail when we see them in detail. but there is no doubt that the drug problem has got a lot worse in the last 10 years, particularly issues like drug related deaths and the county lines, which are destroying lives. and the question for the government is not just about the plans today, but the money they have taken out of the system, millions and millions of pounds ha