Fifteen years ago, Rory Stewart took opium. Stewart inspires a range of opinions at Westminster but I am yet to meet anyone who thinks that it would be better if he had as a result spent seven years in prison at the taxpayer’s expense and found it astonishingly difficult to secure work in anything other than low-paid, insecure jobs or crime.
This is also not the view held by British law enforcement, where charges for possession are brought with decreasing frequency and selectivity.
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