Tuesday, 4 May, 2004

Alexander: Dealers should do time for users' crime

Drug dealers should be charged as accessories to the crimes committed by users either under the influence of the drugs they sold or getting the cash to buy them, United Future law and order spokesman said today in launching his new book, Justice With Both Eyes Open.

"Where there is a clear link to the dealer, then that person should stand in the dock beside the user and face accessory charges," Mr Alexander said.

"Why should they walk away from the mayhem they unleash on society?

"People lose their property to drug-funding burglaries; they are often beaten in the process, and sometimes they are killed are in a meaningless drug-crazed frenzy.

"In each of these cases, any dealer linked to the user committing these crimes should be held responsible as accessory to those acts," he said.

It's high time society got tough with those who profited from wrecking the lives of others, Mr Alexander said.

Justice With Both Eyes Open was launched at a parliamentary function this evening.

Ends.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>