Luthori

[Ligbruderkrieg]

The Tapihana administration has announced the formation of a renewed drug enforcement program to tackle the rising threat of drug trafficking and the increase in illegal drug importation towards Luthori from foreign states. The task force was introduced by Home Secretary Park today during a press conference at Blackhall Palace, in this, the Home Minister described the formation of the National Anti-Drug Task Force as a “necessary endeavour to make our streets safer and deter international drug traffickers to dump their products in Luthori”

The “Directorate” as it was called, will be tasked with tracking, monitoring and dismantling the international or domestic trade routes that are used to transport drugs inside Luthorian soil, the task force, apart from dismantling the routes, will also strive at neutralising the traffickers and perpetrators of such illegal activities.

For the Home Secretary, it was “unacceptable” for the government to overlook the “countless pains and suffering that the daily usage of drugs brings into our society and communities. [...] [The government] also reject the idea that a few bad-intended individuals should have the power to disrupt our society, as such it is our responsibility to combat them regardless of the consequences.” The Anti-Drug Task Force shall enter in the realm of government agencies under the direct oversight of the Ministry of Home Affairs, avoiding falling under police supervision, instead remaining under direct government oversight.

The government also confirmed that the Anti-Drug Task Force would be militarised to “adequately respond to potential armed groups involved in the international trade of narcotics”, with members potentially receiving 

The Home Secretary later defended the creation of the Anti-Drug Task Force and answered questions related to it by MPs in the Diet during a Prime Minister’s Question Period. The creation of an anti-drug task force was criticised by both the right and the left, albeit both for different reasoning, the left criticised the government’s immediate turn towards “repression instead of compassion”, according to Left Party leader, Catherine Mbeki, the government’s turn towards the formation of an anti-drug, militarised agency under its direct oversight was a “bliant disregard for their [Labour’s] earlier campaign promises”, she said: “The Labour Party once again showed its true colours today, during the campaign, the Prime Minister promised that drug users would see a government that stand with them and not against them. [...] I’m personally not opposed to the formation of the task force, but the Labour government prioritised the formation of such task force to the implementation of grassroots measures that would have thwarted the fall of our population into drug usage. [...] Drug usage isn’t just a public health crisis, it’s an economic and social crisis that if we do not take the adequate steps towards fixing, we will not resolve. [...]”

The Prime Minister expressed the government’s view during this Question Period as “[...] [we are] focusing on tackling the flow of drugs coming into this nation first, we want to avoid current day drug users to continue receiving their so-called medicine. This government has made its priority to protect all Luthorians, regardless of background and I do believe that by cracking down hard on these drug traffickers, both at home and abroad, we will actually acheive our objectives. [...] The National Labour Party hasn’t turned its back on anyone, as the Rt’ Hon. Lady seems to suggest, we have merely acted on our program, as described in our manifesto.”

When asked about the scale of the militarisation, the Home Secretary stated that some anti-drug operations would need military-grade training, operations related to the dismantlement of potentially risky cells and others. “All and all, I do believe that in our fight against drugs, that all means be placed upon our side to lead it to victory.” The usage of the military vocabulary has been condemned by the radical left and even some members of parliament of the National Labour Party as being “antagonising towards drug users”. One anonymous MP said that the government’s militarisation of the drug issue was “deeply worrying and seemingly stigmatise some parts of our population”.

For the right, it’s too little too late, in the House of Peers, Conservative peers booed the Lord Wittfield who was answering questions about said anti-drug task force. The right was, while pleased about the government’s turn to right-wing solutions to militarise the drug task force, but lamented the government’s reluctance to enact hard “law and order” policy proposals.

Even within the Labour Party, the different factions also reacted differently depending on their alignment with the Prime Minister’s government. PM Tapihana’s Social Justice Council reacted positively to the development of the task force, calling it a necessary endeavour to contain and stop the drug outbreak. Same for the Lord Wittfield’s Red Sun Society. Others like the Cresent Moon Association expressed some displeasure about this move, but remained silent to keep the government united in the face of right-wing and left-wing opposition.

(Published on May 11, 5728)