Can we throw Michael Gove in prison for his cocaine use?

[AlaskanOilBaron]

I mean seriously, this fella was Justice Secretary- i.e. responsible for sending people to prison for using cocaine - and he's used cocaine?

What a complete twat. He tied himself in a pretzel on Andrew Marr trying to talk his way out of it, how he was 'fortunate' and so on - THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT. He got lucky because he's white, because he's middle class, and so on -so sod the poor fools who haven't been so lucky?

I do hope this is the end of his career.

There are super sleuths who believe his wife, DM journalist Sarah Vine leaked the story to make him appear cool and less ‘Brexity’.

It wouldn’t really need leaking though. I doubt there’s a single Fleet Street journalist that didn’t already know.

Op having known lots of people who use drugs recreationally and even a few who dealt, I can assure you that people don't go to prison for taking cocaine. The minimum sentencing you quoted really covers possession with intent to supply, which isn't the same as sniffing a few lines on a Saturday night. Can't stand the man but let's not get silly

Barack Obama admitted to using cocaine in the past. Didn’t stop him becoming president.

I don’t have a problem with people having dabbled with drug in their past - if everyone lost their job or went to prison for having experimented with drugs in their younger years they’d be very few people left to do the work. And I’m sure the average taxpayer would have a thing of two to say about keeping hundreds of thousands in prison for experimenting over 20 years ago.

Now if they are using recreational drugs whilst holding public office, that’s a different matter.

Diane Abbott with her can of mojito on the tube was different because she did that whilst an elected official, not years ago before she was in politics. Whilst a can of mojito is not the same as cocaine, it’s still a general disregard for the law.

Andrea Leadsom now? Bugger me sideways - what did she do? Two Lemsips instead of one?

Middle class coke users like Gove are a massive threat to society. Just because they aren’t the ones physically holding the knife that stabs the 14 boy on the council estate doesn’t mean they aren’t partly responsible. Kids are being killed and forced into county lines drug running in order to fuel middle class dinner parties

Unfinishedkitchen nailed it, though living in Mexico, where we had a fucking stupid drugs war where some 200,000 people must have died by 2018 (they stopped counting in 2012, when the figure was 135,000), and there are about a million displaced people, I would like them to be taken into account too.

So everybody who has done anything illegal ever should be barred from public office?

We aren't Americans, we know people change when they get older.

As well as all the women who have been battered by their partners because of cocaine-induced paranoia.

Course alcohol a pretty strong drug in its own right is freely availabe to anyone over 18 but i suppose its more socialy acceptable but still caueses a lot of greif and pain..

OP you are very, very naive. I am sure there loads of people within the criminal justice sector (from bobbies on the beat to barristers and judges) who have done taken cocaine (and potentially not just recreationally). Likewise health care professionals including doctors, teachers and people in all sorts of other responsible professions.

Meh I can’t imagine too many people who moved in those sorts of circles in the 80s and early 90s who didn’t take coke

Sorry, typos galore in that last post -

Oh for goodness sake. He tried cocaine. Years ago. I'm quite sure that there's people all around you who have tried drugs - your colleagues, your friends, your family. Quite possibly some of them have even been addicted too. .

Let's get all po faced and ridiculous over this. What relevance does something that happened 20yrs ago have today? Also - and I think his policies etc were awful - a person can use drugs and still function and function quite well.

And you wouldn't go to prison for being in possession of cocaine. Unless you're a dealer and have been prolific and arrested multiple times, you are more likely to be put on licence and that's for dealing. Possession would get you a caution, at best.

But if he goes to prison, might there be a bigger idiot who ends up inside no 10. I'm not actually naming anyone specific, there are several to choose from.

I don’t think you’ll find many (if any) end up in prison for possession, but possession with intent to supply will be a different story.

I don't really care if he was a recreational user for a short time. As has been said, if every politician was judged on their earlier lives we'd be struggling for candidates.

Michael Gove may be successful and middle class now, but that wasn't his childhood experience. I admire his attitude. He has striven to succeed to prove to his adoptive parents that he was worth the gamble. No silver spoon for him, unlike so many of his colleagues.

I loved the bit of the interview where Andrew Marr asked him about entry to the US, which went something like this:

AM: So have you lied about this in the past in order to get into the US?
MG: Err..I don’t think I’ve ever been asked the question.
AM: It’s on the ESTA form - “have you ever taken Class A drugs?”. You will have had to tick Yes or No.
MG: Errr... I can’t remember lying about it to anyone who asked.
AM: Are you concerned that, having now admitted the truth, you might be refused entry to the US in the future [like Nigella]?
MG: Hmmm... well if I was Prime Minister they’d have to let me in, right?

I am sure there loads of people within the criminal justice sector (from bobbies on the beat to barristers and judges) who have done taken cocaine (and potentially not just recreationally). Likewise health care professionals including doctors, teachers and people in all sorts of other responsible professions

And that's seen as just fine and dandy isn't it because they are invariably white and middle class and don't deserve to have their lives ruined by a criminal record. Meanwhile, like I said already, if you're a working class black kid, you're considered criminal scum by these hypocrites.

YABU for worrying about a little bit of recreational cocaine use. But can we jail him just for being a twat

Seriously? If we jailed everyone for using class As then I think I'd probably have a pretty hefty workload in the office tomorrow

He’s a twat of the highest order and I would love to see him in prison. However, the idea that he’ll be prosecuted for personal use over 20 years on is laughable. The time and money involved in a court case really wouldn’t be worth it - the CPS would never be able to justify that it was in the public interest.

It's not the actual drug usage, it's a rare person who's not experimented or whatever. It's the bloody hypocrisy. Writing for the Sun calling for harsher penalties for users the day after partying with a £50 note stuffed up his schnozzer. It's being Minister of Justice ffs. It's pretending to be better, more honest, more upright, altogether a paragon of virtue when, of course, you're not. We know this to be a lie, whether admitted or not. It's bloody insulting. And for ballsing up Education he deserves everything he gets.

I can confirm it is not illegal to take cocaine. Being in possession of it is however is illegal

Forgive me as I'm no lawyer but ..... how does one take it without, at some point, being in possession of it?

Anyway, despite not being able to fathom that, come on: it's really not an imprisonable offence, is it?

When he was Secretary of State, Michael Gove brought in a lifetime ban for teachers who used cocaine.

So maybe he shouldn’t go to jail but he should at least be sacked by his own standards?

Presumably they had to use it while being teachers, not ever used it?

So if he had used as an MP then his own standards would say sack him but not if he had used it before.

Would you ban drivers because once before they got a license the got drunk and walked home?

how does one take it without, at some point, being in possession of it?

Someone offers you a line at a party.