Crime fighter warns movies glamorising drugs fuel youngster’s coke use
A senior law enforcement official has said that ‘middle-class drug use’ is fuelled films and TV shows that glamorise it.
This has led to an increased use in the likes of cocaine and other recreational drugs in Britain for people in their twenties and thirties.
Chris Farrimond, director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency, told The Times that drug use had become an “acceptable pastime”, making the UK and the rest of Europe appealing to traffickers.
“The traffickers see the UK as a very attractive destination for drugs,” he said. “And considering that we’ve got an extra set of borders between the UK and Europe they still want to take that extra step and take that extra risk of trying to get it through our borders because they know that you get a good price for it in the UK.”
Farrimond welcomed the government’s ten-year drug strategy, published yesterday, which has a distinct focus on the demand for drugs among lifestyle users. It is considering tougher sanctions, including confiscating passports and larger fines on users.
For cocaine specifically, Farrimond said in his interview with The Times: “It’s become more glamorised and probably the depictions that you see in the media — I’m talking about particularly films — glamorise it, at least to some degree, so perhaps from that point of view, there’s a little bit of influencing going on.”
Movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as cinema classics like Scarface and Pulp Fiction, idolise the use of cocaine, and proffer a mentality of ‘giving it a go’ by young people.
Farrimond also cited more disposable income as a reason behind enhanced use compared to previous generations.