Middle-class cocaine users will be targeted as part of a crackdown on the causes of violent crime

Middle-class drug users will be targeted as part of a crackdown on the causes of violent crime, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will announce.

He will use his Tory conference speech to launch a review of drug buyers and sellers – and how shifts in the market are linked to outbreaks of bloodshed.

Justice Secretary David Gauke will also announce a new financial crime unit to seize the assets of drugs “kingpins”.

Labour says the proposals will not make up for cuts to public services.

Affluent drug users have been linked to the rise in gang-related knife crime in London and other cities.

In August, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, echoing London Mayor Sadiq Khan, said: “There are some Londoners who think it is a victimless crime, taking cocaine at ‘middle-class parties’.”

The results of the Home Office drug misuse review – targeting all types of user, including professionals – will be used to help police crack down on buyers and sellers, Mr Javid will say.

In a pre-speech interview, he told the Daily Mail: “We need to make people understand that if you are a middle-class drug user and you sort of think, ‘Well, I’m not doing any damage, I know what I’m doing,’ well, there’s a whole supply chain that goes into that.

“Youths whose lives have been abused, the county lines, other drug takers being abused, crime being encouraged.

“You are not innocent – no one is innocent if they are taking illegal drugs.”

BBC