TOP COP IN CALL FOR HEROIN ON NHS PLAN

Heroin should be handed out on the NHS because the fight against drugs
is failing, a senior police officer said yesterday.

Chief Constable Tom Lloyd believes giving users a free fix could stop
them turning to crime and harming others.

He also warned locking up junkies was not working. The Cambridgeshire
police boss said: "If people are addicted to heroin and getting it on
the street, that causes problems.

"Let's give it on the NHS and stabilise communities, then sort out the
other problems. We have doubled the number of prisoners over the last
20 years. It hasn't worked and never will."

Mr Lloyd spoke out after a report from the UK Drug Policy Commission
warned that the fight against dealers and traffickers is being lost.
It found attempts to shut off supplies have had almost no impact on
Britain's UKP 5.3billion drugs market. Police and customs spend
hundreds of millions of pounds targeting smugglers and dealers.

But their busts have not curbed demand or street level supply. The
number of Class A seizures in England and Wales more than doubled
between 1996 and 2005.

But the report pointed out that up to four-fifths of smuggled drugs
would need to be seized to put major traffickers out of business -
levels never achieved around the world.

It called for more to be done to reduce the impact of drugs on
communities by tackling gang violence and prostitution.