Is there a way to use global middleware to stop event processing?

The docs for Global middleware say:

Both global and listener middleware must call next() to pass control of the execution chain to the next middleware.

I’m looking for a way to use global middleware as a type of “event filter”. For example, one use case is checking a list of users that the bot should ignore. Having a way to do this globally (basically, a way to “stop event processing, don’t continue”) would be easier than having to set a flag in the context dict and checking it in every event handler.

Thanks for any insight.

[eddyg]

Thank you, Kazuhiro-san, for your time and explanations!

[seratch]

Sorry, the above comment was initially confusing. I’ve updated it.