Is this some kind of competition to see how many drug policy errors you can fit into one tweet? https://twitter.com/ShaunBaileyUK/status/1297499414160908288

Let's look at some of the inaccurate claims, non sequiturs and bad ideas in @ShaunBaileyUK's tweet on drug testing. A thread...

Mr Bailey claims that drugs are a direct cause of street crime. But, as recent reports by @gmhales and @YouthViolenceUK show, it's a lot more complicated than that https://twitter.com/lbilli91/status/1285530488879423489?s=19

The majority of harms associated with drug markets in London, including violence and child exploitation, occur in the part of the market that serves daily users of heroin and crack. These are not, for the most part, 'middle class users'.

Most of these people are not employed. If they are, it's not by the type of employer targeted by Mr Bailey's drug testing proposal. More likely to be in casual, cash-in-hand or precarious pseudo self-employment.

Evidence on the general effectiveness of employer-led drug testing is mixed, at best https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1348-9585.12133

Evidence that drug testing employees would reduce violence and child exploitation is non-existent.

But Mr Bailey's proposal would impose costs on employers and threaten the livelihoods of people who test positive, potentially pushing them further into mental health problems and problematic substance use.

So @ShaunBaileyUK is right to be worried about the violence and child exploitation that occurs around drug markets. But we need an evidence-informed, comprehensive approach, as suggested by @YouthViolenceUK, not silly, damaging ideas like drug testing employees.