ZERO tolerance drug zones should be set up in Camden Town to beat the dealers, according to the landlord of one of its world-famous music venues, writes Richard Osley.
Fed-up Henry Conlon, boss at the Dublin Castle in Parkway, has written to the Town Hall calling for zones to be marked out making it clear that drug dealing will not be accepted any more.
He suggests that offenders caught inside the zones would face stiffer penalties and custodial sentences.
In a letter to the council, Mr Conlon said: “Ideas and initiatives must be wearing thin. Even after very intensive police operations finish cleaning up areas, the drug dealers often return days or weeks later.
“ The frustration, anxiety and fear that the communities are submitted to by these drug users and dealers cannot be allowed to continue.
“I would like to suggest the introduction of zero-drug zones. These are areas that are definitive and very clearly marked out.
“All pedestrians would know they had entered into a ‘ZDZ’.”
He added: “In order for a ZDZ to work, courts and magistrates must recognise that any person arrested for using, dealing or possessing drugs inside a ZDZ did so blatantly ignoring the fact that communities do not want them there.
“They must be in no doubt that when they enter the ZDZ they risk the full wrath of arrest and a custodial sentence.”