Zero tolerance

As a social policy commentator, however, his call for the use of drugs to be treated as a public health problem, and not a crime, is both ill-advised and misplaced.

If implemented, it would only exacerbate a culture of drug dependency – the very reason why crime rates across Yorkshire are still unacceptably high.

It is a situation that will not be helped by the tycoon’s utterances to a Parliamentary review of drugs policy – or new sentencing guidelines that could see street dealers caught with heroin, cocaine or large quantities of cannabis escaping a jail term when they come before the courts.

The reason why drugs are still the cause of so many of society’s ills is because the views of libertarians, like Sir Richard, have prevailed for too long, and also the criminal justice system has been unable to send out a sufficiently robust message that the illegal use of drugs will never tolerated because of the lives wrecked by their misuse.