A London resident questions whether the capital has become a narcotics epicentre against a daily backdrop of violence and drugs raids…
Last night I was again woken by police sirens in my neighbourhood as another house in my street was raided for drugs.
It will be at least the ninth one since I moved into my flat in February this year.
The police have a strong presence in my quaint neighbourhood. Just last week I was walking home when police pounced on a young teenager and questioned him about a series of robberies in my street that day.
And I forgot to mention my flatmate's car door was prized off with a crow bar last night also, probably by a drug addict in need of funds.
Is it my area? I don’t think so, because this seems to be a common occurrence wherever I go, leading me to question, is London a drugs capital?
Petty things are stolen for quick cash to buy drugs, cars are driven and dumped to transport drugs or used as a getaway and police are raiding houses in your very neighbourhood.
At the end of last year a study by Thames Water revealed London's river is flowing with cocaine, as Londoners snort more than 150,000 lines of the drug every day.
The figure suggests up to 250,000 of London's six million residents regularly take cocaine.
The investigation found that, after cocaine had passed through users' bodies and sewage treatment plants, about 2kg – or 80,000 lines – of the drug went into the Thames daily.
Meanwhile, in the never-ending battle against drugs in the capital, supermodel Kate Moss will get off scot-free for alleged drug abuse… Just what the capital needs, encouragement from one of it’s most famous exports and role models.
A legal loophole will save the supermodel from being charged over claims that she took cocaine, prosecutors admitted last week.
The 32-year-old was questioned by Scotland Yard after a newspaper published photos from a video taken last September of her apparently snorting large quantities of cocaine.
But Rene Barclay, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the footage could not prove whether the substance was cocaine, ecstasy or amphetamine and whether it was Class A or B.
The CPS must prove beyond reasonable doubt which category of drug is being abused leaving Moss, who admitted herself into rehab afterwards, free to continue her career.
Meanwhile, in a tiny jail cell in Bali, Indonesia, sits a lonely and distraught convicted Australian drug smuggler who swears by her innocence and is now serving 20 years for allegedly smuggling 4.1 kilos of cannabis into Bali.
Where is the justice? How can anyone expect to win the war against drugs when celebrities so openly and carelessly promote the use with no effect to their professional careers?
Meanwhile this week the Metropolitan police have seized 42 kilos of heroin, worth more than £1 million pounds.
Acting Detective Chief Inspector John Loudon, from Operation Trident, has said the operation, in which three people were arrested, was a success.
"This operation demonstrates our determination to disrupt criminal networks involved in the supply of drugs and related gun crime," he said.
While the police will continue to fight the battle of drugs in London, one has to wonder if they will ever succeed. Is it perhaps that drugs are too readily available, and are they growing in popularity as they are promoted as harmless fun by celebrities?
London is a unique and vibrant city, but the lives of too many individuals, families and communities are blighted by problems linked to alcohol and drug use.
The growth in alcohol and drug problems and connected rise in violence, crime, family breakdown, homelessness, premature death and ill-health threatens the prosperity and well-being of all Londoners.
