Drugs-link haunts Home Secretary

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith travelled to Wednesfield to support a drug awareness scheme. She spoke to Peter Rhodes. The kids were hushed, the mayor and councillors listened attentively in the big, hot hall at the Jennie Lee Centre and the Home Secretary said all the right things about drugs. They mess you up. They destroy families. They ruin careers and waste talent. And because parents feel embarrassed to discuss the subject, sometimes Mum and Dad are the last to know. At this point Jacqui Smith went into full empathy mode. She has a teenage child. She told the audience, as one mother to others: “Being the parent of a teenager is a blooming difficult job.” And yet the blooming obvious bit of drug-use empathy, the personal issue that sets this Home Secretary apart from most others, went unspoken. Like the elephant in the... [read full story]