The real insight of your report is the breath-taking ignorance in
official circles.

Two experts, funded by the Department of Health on be half of Drug
Scope, tell us cities like Hull, Bradford and Bristol have been
"untouched" until recently by heroin.

I have just checked with police who deal with all three
cities.

The fact is heroin made its home there years ago, as it did in every
other city and in almost every town. Bradford has a particularly
successful heroin trade from Pakistan. As for Hull and Bristol - tell
a social worker or police officer that they haven't had to deal with
the heroin blackmarket for years. At least you'd get a laugh.

The government's disastrous prohibition policy survives primarily
because the ministers and officials who defend it do not know what
they are talking about.

Nick Davies
London