{"id":47267,"date":"2021-12-18T19:41:04","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T19:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=47267"},"modified":"2021-12-18T19:41:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T19:41:30","slug":"traces-of-cocaine-found-in-parliament-following-announcement-of-drug-strategy-overhaul-aimed-at-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/traces-of-cocaine-found-in-parliament-following-announcement-of-drug-strategy-overhaul-aimed-at-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Traces of Cocaine found in Parliament, Following announcement of drug strategy overhaul aimed at recovery\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Following a \u2018Sunday Times\u2019 article, Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he would investigate Westminster\u2019s drug culture after traces of cocaine were detected in a number of places accessible only to people with authorisation, specifically areas where only the Home Secretary (Sajid Javid) and PM (Boris Johnson) would have access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, published by Sunday Times, detailed that traces of the Class A substance where found in 11 out of 12 bathrooms tested. Tests were conducted in several locations including a lavatory close to the PM\u2019s office, using drug detection wipes. The report, mentioning household names and young MP\u2019s as a part of a wider problem in Westminster, dubbed \u201ccocaine culture\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The accounts of drug misuse in Parliament given to the Sunday Times are deeply concerning &#8212; and I will be raising them as a priority with the Metropolitan Police this week,&#8221; stated Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who \u201cexpect[s] to see full and effective enforcement of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An un-named source told Sunday Times, &#8220;I have seen an MP (member of Parliament) openly snorting cocaine at a party, There were journalists present and I warned them that what they were doing was extremely dangerous and they could be exposed but they seemed to get off on the power trip.&#8221; The report also said that cannabis was being &#8220;used openly&#8221; at Westminster and the smell of cannabis can be smelt on the streets close to the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many have criticised the government, as Boris Johnson, dressed as a police officer, announced new plans to help combat drug use and addiction, a hallmark 10-year strategy, allocating \u00a3780m in funding for the drug treatment system in England. The strategy also includes a \u00a3300million budget with the aim to eradicate \u201ccounty lines\u201d gangs which exploit young people across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twitter users have been quick to highlight the hypocrisy and irony in the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Penybryn01\/status\/1467821290396524550\n<\/div><figcaption>Source: Penybryn01 &amp; Boris Johnson via Twitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Words by Hassan Qadeer | Subbed by Raheela Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a \u2018Sunday Times\u2019 article, Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he would investigate Westminster\u2019s drug culture after traces of cocaine were detected in a number of places accessible only to people&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorised"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47275,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47267\/revisions\/47275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}